SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

of  the 

LABOR  QUESTION 


University  of  California 
Department  of  University  Extension 


i-O 

CO 


RROLL  D.WRIGH 


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University  of  California 
Department  of  University  Extension 


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SOME    ETHICAL   PHASES 
of  the  LABOR    QUESTION 


SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 
of  the  LABOR    QUESTION 

By 
CARROLL  D.  WRIGHT,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

UNITED    STATES    COMMISSIONER    OF    LABOR 

Author  of  ^^  Industrial  Evolution  of  the  United  States ''^ 
'*  Outline  of  Practical  Sociology,"  etc. 


AMERICAN      UNITARIAN 
ASSOCIATION:      BOSTON:     1903 


Copyright  1902 
American  Unitarian  Association 

Second  Edition 


CONTENTS. 


I.    Religion  in  Relation  to  Sociology,  3 

II.    The    Relation    of   Political    Econ- 
omy TO  the  Labor  Question  ...  25 

III.  The    Factory    as    an    Element    in 

Civilization 81 

IV.  The  Ethics  of  Prison  Labor     .     .    .  161 


k,y4o48 


I 

RELIGION  IN  RELATION  TO 
SOCIOLOGY. 


I  \\  I 


1 1    >     > 
>    J  > 


RELIGION   IN   RELATION   TO 
SOCIOLOGY. 

If  we  depend  upon  lexicographers  for  a 
definition  of  religion,  we  find  that  it  com- 
prehends a  belief  in  the  being  and  perfec- 
tion of  God,  in  the  revelation  of  his  will  to 
man,  in  man's  obligation  to  obey  his  com- 
mands, and  in  man's  accountableness  to 
God ;  and  it  also  includes  true  godliness^  or 
purity  of  life,  with  the  practice  of  all  moral 
duties.  If  we  do  not  undertake  to  square 
rehgion  with  dogmatic  theological  thought 
and  teaching,  we  shall  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that,  as  distinct  from  theology,  religion 
is  godliness,  or  real  purity  in  practice,  con- 
sisting of  the  performance  of  aU  known 
duties  to  God  and  our  fellow-men  and  our- 
selves. If  we  search  the  heart  and  the  con- 
science, this  ^dll  be  the  outcome.  We  shall 
agree  with  Fichte,  that  religion  is  "  faith  in 


4  '•' '  /'  ''  •*   b6M^  l&TRJCAL  PHASES 

a  moral  government  of  the  world,"  and  that 
without  it  "morahty  is  superstition,  which 
deceives  the  unfortunate  with  a  false  hope 
and  makes  them  incapable  of  improvement." 
We  shaU  agree,  too,  with  Kant,  that  rehgion 
is  "  reverence  for  the  moral  law  as  of  divine 
command,"  and  with  Dr.  Martineau,  that 
religion  is  the  "culminating  meridian  of 
morals."  Still,  we  shall  go  beyond  this,  and 
recognize  in  rehgion,  pure  and  simple  and 
undefiled,  the  great  moving  force  which  un- 
derHes  the  formation  of  our  characters,  de- 
termines our  action,  not  only  as  to  self,  but 
as  to  others,  teaches  us  the  rules  of  right 
and  wrong,  and  that  through  character  and 
conduct  we  show  our  sense  of  responsibility 
and  of  our  accountableness  to  God  and  to 
our  fellow-man,  in  the  latter  finding  the 
practical  work  in  which  we  can  show  the 
greatest  honor  to  God  and  the  greatest  and 
highest  comprehension  of  our  best  emotions. 
If  we  consult  the  lexicographer  again,  we 
shall  find  that  sociology  is  the  science  of 
social  phenomena, —  the  science  which  in- 
vestigates the  laws  regulating  human  society  ; 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  b 

the  science  which  treats  of  the  general 
structure  of  society,  the  laws  of  its  develop- 
ment, the  progress  of  civilization,  and  all 
that  relates  to  society.  If  we  go  to  our  own 
hearts  and  experiences,  sociology  becomes 
something  different  from  a  science.  It  be- 
comes a  habit  of  social  relations, —  the  moral 
attitude  of  man  to  man,  the  comprehension 
of  the  methods  and  processes  by  which  men 
grow  out  of  self  and  into  serviceableness  to 
their  fellows.  It  is,  in  a  reHgious  and  an 
ethical  sense,  the  soul  of  society,  -v^ith  man 
as  the  expression  of  the  soul,  and  the  means 
and  the  vehicle  by  which  the  soul  of  society 
works  out  the  redemption  of  its  material 
elements ;  and  ethics,  which  is  not  rehgion, 
but  which  is  not  ethics  unless  stimulated  by 
it,  means  the  truest,  the  highest,  the  divin- 
est  relations  of  men  in  society. 

Again,  we  shall  conclude  that  sociology 
deals  with  the  institutions  which  enable 
society  to  perform  its  infinitely  varied  func- 
tions, that  every  feature  of  society  which 
comprehends  the  action  of  a  group  of  in- 
dividual units  represents   some   institution, 


6  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

and  without  regard  to  the  theory  which  may 
be  adopted  to  account  for  the  origin  and 
development  of  society ;  for,  whatever  that 
origin  may  have  been,  all  organizations  hav- 
ing the  purpose  of  regulation,  government, 
or  defence  are  institutions  created  by  in- 
dividuals in  their  relations  to  each  other. 
Thus  customs,  laws,  habits,  traditions,  re- 
ligions,—  everything  that  represents  the 
action  of  men  in  groups, —  are  institutions 
in  a  sociological  sense. 

With  these  definitions  we  can  appreciate 
the  facetious  answer  of  a  student  when 
asked.  What  is  sociology?  He  said  it  was 
an  aspiration ;  and,  while  the  answer  was 
given  to  slur  the  science  of  sociology  as 
something  nebulous  and  incomprehensible, 
it  has  in  it  great  truth.  For  the  aim  of 
society  in  all  its  regidations  is  to  reach  an 
ideal  state,  in  which  all  units,  individual  and 
social,  shall  be  happy,  and  shall  in  their 
methods  conduce  to  the   happiness   of   all. 

Religion  is  something  more  than  an  as- 
piration. It  is  a  hope.  In  it  and  through 
it   and   by   it  the  human  race  has  always 


OF  TUE  LABOR  QUESTION  7 

looked  for  the  siiblimest  consummation  of 
life, —  that  spiritual  happiness  which  comes 
through  the  hope  of  eternal  welfare,  which 
comes  through  the  hope  of  a  relation  to  God 
that  shall  make  the  man  of  hope  something 
more  than  human  :  something  divine.  Re- 
Hgion  and  sociology,  therefore,  with  this 
comprehension,  compass  the  highest  ele- 
ments of  correlated  forces.  They  involve 
an  interweaving  of  interests  and  a  recog- 
nition of  a  common  source  of  existence  of 
action  and  of  ultimate  end.  Neither  religion 
nor  sociology  can  be  studied  alone,  inde- 
pendently of  the  other.  They  must  be 
studied  side  by  side  as  correlated  forces, 
each  acting  upon  the  other,  each  determin- 
ing the  destiny  of  man,  and  hence  of  society. 
The  earher  writers  on  sociology  framed 
their  works  upon  what  is  known  as  the  mate- 
rialistic or  biological  theory  of  society, — 
that  society  is  an  organism,  developed  on 
the  cellular  plan,  like  the  hiunan  organism. 
The  later  writers  do  not  consider  this  theory 
adequate  to  account  for  social  organization ; 
and  they  have  advanced  the  theory  that  so- 


8  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

ciety  is  the  result  of  psychic  forces, —  of 
what  Dr.  Giddings  characterizes  "the  con- 
sciousness of  kind."  If  later  writers  are 
correct, —  and  they  seem  to  me  to  be  so, — 
religion  must  have  played  an  important  part 
in  the  evolution  of  society  as  a  psychic 
force ;  for  the  emotional  nature  of  man  is 
one  of  the  principal  elements  of  rehgious 
nature,  which  is  emotional  in  the  highest 
sense,  as  it  relates  to  the  deeper  spiritual, 
and  even  the  supernatural,  tendencies  of  the 
human  mind. 

Dr.  Albion  W.  Small,  a  philosopher,  a  so- 
ciologist, and  a  believer  in  the  deepest  rehg- 
ious life  and  in  the  influence  of  the  teachings 
of  rehgion,  concludes  that  sociologists  are, 
in  the  first  place,  subjecting  social  facts  to 
such  minute  analyses  that  all  science  will  be 
better  understood ;  second,  that  they  are 
trying  to  untangle  the  complexities  of  the 
social  process  in  all  times  and  places,  so  that 
we  may  presently  teach  men  how  to  find 
themselves  in  that  portion  of  the  process 
which  is  working  out  in  their  particular  en- 
vironment ;   third,  that  they  are  explaining 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  9 

the  operation  of  social  forces  and  formulat- 
ing the  laws  of  their  workings,  so  that  we 
may  presently  know  better  what  resources 
are  available  for  human  tasks  and  how  they 
may  be  most  effectively  appHed;  fourth, 
that  they  are  trying  to  find  standards  for 
judgment  about  the  social  products  of  one 
time  as  compared  with  those  of  other  times, 
so  that  we  may  take  more  accurate  account 
of  our  stock  of  social  achievements;  and, 
fifth, —  and  here  is  the  deepest  philosophy 
of  Dr.  Small's  analysis, —  that  sociologists 
are  trying  to  discover  in  the  facts  of  social 
conditions  and  resources  material  out  of 
which  to  construct  more  concrete  and  speci- 
fic and  coherent  ideals  of  the  appropriate 
aims  of  human  endeavor.*  Dr.  Small's  ar- 
ticle on  "  The  Value  of  Sociology  to  Work- 
ing Pastors  "  is  commended. 

The  great  question  arises.  What  kind  of 
materials  must  be  used  to  enable  us  to  con- 
struct more  concrete,  specific,  and  coherent 
ideals  of  the  appropriate  aims  of  himian  en- 
deavor ?     And  the  answer  must  be  that  an 

♦  Cf .  the  Outlook,  June  17, 1899. 


10  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

ideal  state  of  society  is  to  be  found  only 
when  religious  elements  predominate;  for, 
in  studying  sociology,  we  are  searching  for 
the  philosophy  of  life,  and  both  the  rehgion- 
ist  and  the  sociologist  find  that,  no  matter 
when  society  began,  no  matter  when  social 
combinations  first  began  to  organize  their 
forces,  rehgion  played  a  prominent  initiative 
part.  There  has  been  no  race  in  its  prime- 
val days,  with  or  without  organizations,  that 
has  not  had  its  religious  ceremonials,  with 
their  deep  and  lasting  influence  upon  the 
purpose,  character,  and  results  of  their  as- 
sociations. It  does  not  matter  how  crude 
or  how  repulsive  these  ceremonials  may 
appear  to  us  now,  they  were  the  deepest 
expressions  of  the  rehgious  elements  of 
man  at  one  time. 

We  now  believe  that  some  forms  of  theo- 
logical dogma  are  simply  the  result  of  the 
superstitious  religions  found  in  the  crudest 
races  of  men.  A  God  or  a  number  of  gods 
have  always  had  possession  of  the  minds  of 
men.  We  beHeve  in  one  immanent  God, 
the  source  of  all  inteUigence,  who  is  all  in- 


OF  TUE  LABOR  QUESTION  11 

telligence.  This  only  raises  us  in  the  stand- 
ard of  religious  culture  and,  I  believe,  in  the 
power  of  religious  force.  We  apply  our 
rehgious  culture  to  the  shaping  of  human 
events,  to  the  formation  of  human  enterprise, 
to  the  building  of  character,  to  the  purpose 
of  human  organizations,  and  hence  to  the 
real  purpose  of  society  itself.  We  have 
grown  out  of  savagery  and  barbarism  and 
superstition  in  some  degree ;  but  that  degi*ee 
is  immense  when  we  compare  the  present 
with  the  far  past,  and  whether  we  are  deal- 
ing with  society  or  with  reHgion  as  a  force 
in  society. 

The  struggles  of  men  assume  a  different 
phase  as  the  development  of  rehgious  beUef 
goes  on,  the  development  of  social  relations 
accompanying  the  rehgious  development. 
We  are  just  beginning  to  comprehend  the 
hving  Christ  in  all  the  relations  of  men, — 
the  Christ  who  Hved  before  the  Christian 
era,  and  who  has  had  a  Hving  personality 
since  then.  We  beHeve  more  and  more  in 
the  true  essence  of  rehgion,  which  is  the 
absolute  foundation  of  the  very  best  society. 


12  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

This  is  found  in  the  utterance,  "Bear  ye 
one  another's  burdens."  But  this  sentiment 
is  as  old  as  creation,  as  new  as  to-day. 
While  all  the  races,  crude  and  cultured, 
have  had  their  God  or  gods,  aU  races  have 
had  their  Christs ;  and  the  Christ  idea  in 
social  development  has  been  smnmed  up 
in  the  conmiand,  "  What  you  do  not  like 
when  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do  to  others," 
as  the  inspiration  of  the  Chinese  philosopher 
five  hundred  years  before  our  own  great 
Master,  when  from  his  inspiration  came  the 
command,  "  Do  unto  others  as  ye  would 
that  others  would  do  unto  you."  The  Christ 
of  the  Buddhists  gave  the  world  the  same 
inspiration ;  and  so  did  Seneca,  and  so  did 
Kant.  I  have  just  read  in  a  book  entitled 
Better  World  Philosophy  that  this  is 
the  injunction  which  has  been  proclaimed 
by  the  sublimest  souls  that  have  pondered 
and  agonized  over  the  sins  of  beings.  The 
injunction  is  to  put  yourself  in  the  place 
of  others.  It  is  consideration  of  others  as 
ardent  as  consideration  of  seH.  It  is  the 
balancing  of  abilities,  the  social  ideal.*     So 

*Cf.  Better  World  Philosophy,  J.  Howard  Moore,  p.  194. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  18 

in  the  great  command  of  the  greatest  teacher 
of  divine  truth  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and 
of  inspired  teachers  before  and  since  his 
birth  and  death, —  the  command,  "  Bear  ye 
one  another's  burdens," — religion  and  soci- 
ology find  their  deepest  expression  and  their 
truest  harmony. 

But  sociology  deals  with  practical  prob- 
lems, with  the  great  difficulties  constantly 
besetting  governments  as  the  highest  repre- 
sentations of  social  organization.  How  shall 
we  deal  with  the  poor  and  those  needing  the 
assistance  of  the  well-to-do  ?  Crude  charity, 
as  a  sociological  force,  says  they  must  be  as- 
sisted. ReHgion,  as  a  divine  force,  gives 
charity  the  first  place  in  hirnian  quahties. 
Religion  and  sociology,  making  a  scientific 
study  of  this  very  difficulty  in  hiunan  rela- 
tions, teach  us  that  there  is  as  much  danger 
in  benevolence  and  philanthropy  as  in  the 
neglect  of  philanthropic  and  benevolent  im- 
pulses. Experience,  examination,  and  re- 
search show  that  crude  charity  is  a  menace 
to  society.  We  throw  many  young  men  and 
women  into  penal  institutions  by  our  benevo- 


14  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

lent  acts  by  bringing  them  up  in  reformatory 
and  charitable  institutions  until  old  enough 
to  earn  their  own  living,  and  then  sending 
them  out  into  the  world  without  the  knowl- 
edge or  the  technical  skill  by  which  they  can 
sustain  themselves.  More  enlightened  re- 
ligion and  more  scientific  sociology  will  right 
this  wrong,  and  teach  the  true  method  under 
which  men  shall  be  equipped  for  life-work, 
and  not  simply  educated  to  become  pubhc 
wards.  Rehgion  has  invaded  the  prison,  so- 
ciology has  furnished  the  facts,  and  the  re- 
ligious heart,  allied  to  sociological  science, 
has  developed  penology  into  the  science  of 
reclamation.  Rehgion  has  forgotten  the 
wrathful  God  under  which  society  justified 
itself  in  avenging  its  wrongs  upon  the  wrong- 
doer, and  has  taught  the  world  that  the  only 
true  method  is  to  treat  the  prisoner  as  a 
morally  sick  man,  under  the  obligation  that 
he  shall  be  returned  to  society  supplied  with 
the  knowledge  the  deficiency  in  which  in  a 
majority  of  cases  brought  him  to  the  prison. 
Reli<rion  is  reaching:  out  into  sociolo«:ical 
lines  in  other  directions.     It  is  putting  its 


OF  THE  LABOR   QUESTION  15 

hand  upon  government  and  upon  all  the  in- 
tegral elements  of  government.  It  is  influenc- 
ing the  individual  units  of  society,  so  that 
by  their  development  and  by  their  culture 
the  government  itseK  shall  be  as  pure  as  its 
source, —  a  long  struggle,  to  be  sure ;  but 
religion  and  sociology  as  allied  forces,  or,  as 
a  better  expression,  rehgion  as  a  force  in  de- 
termining sociological  work,  is  bringing  about 
the  regeneration. 

Sociology  has  as  one  of  its  departments 
poHtical  economy ;  and,  although  the  econo- 
mists resent  all  encroachments  of  religion  or 
deny  the  existence  of  religion  as  a  force  in 
poHtical  economy,  it  is,  nevertheless,  an  as- 
sured fact  that  rehgion  is  making  a  new 
political  economy.  The  Ruskin  school  is 
increasing  its  student  roU,  and  that  in- 
creased student  roll  is  developing  new  ele- 
ments in  the  political  and  economic  rela- 
tions of  man.  We  can  join  with  Henry  D. 
Lloyd  in  his  enthusiasm  when  he  declares 
that  there  is  a  new  poHtical  economy,  which 
looks  first  to  the  care  and  cidture  of 
men ;    that  there  is  a  new   seH-interest   of 


16  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

the  individual,  who  puts  his  family  before 
himself,  his  country  before  his  family,  man- 
kind before  his  country,  because  there  is 
filtering  into  his  conscience  the  vast  fact  that 
his  share  of  what  is  done  for  him  by  man- 
kind is  of  far  more  value  to  him  than  what 
he  does  for  himself.  This  new  political 
economy,  which  Mr.  Lloyd  describes  as  a 
new  self-interest  of  the  community,  and 
which  is  going  into  the  slums,  factories, 
mines,  and  workshops,  desires  to  make  all 
safe  by  making  its  weakest  safe;  and  Mr. 
Lloyd  closes  with  the  statement  that  there  is  a 
new  state, —  the  organized  body  of  Christ, — 
which  feeds  the  hungry,  heals  the  sick,  and 
visits  those  in  prison,  and  gathers  up  the 
children, —  a  new  religion,  in  fact,  a  religion 
of  progress,  and  of  man  as  a  partner  in  the 
creation  of  that  progress,  creating  new  ideas, 
new  species  of  plants  and  animals,  new  men, 
and  new  society.  In  this  light,  can  we  deny 
the  force  of  religion  in  shaping  our  socio- 
logical work  ?  Patriotism  is  born  of  religion, 
and  patriotism  is  a  power  in  the  development 
of  society ;  but  in  religion  is  found  the  very 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  17 

fundamental  principle  of  patriotism, —  that 
is,  loyalty  to  a  principle,  loyalty  to  country, 
and,  through  loyalty  to  country,  loyalty  to 
God. 

A  German  evangehcal,  Rudolph  Todt,  in 
applying  physiological  science  to  society, 
finds  that  political  economy  is  the  anatomy 
which  makes  known  the  construction  of  the 
body  social ;  that  sociaKsm  is  the  pathology 
that  describes  the  maladies  of  society,  and 
that  the  church  represents  the  therapeutics 
that  prescribe  the  proper  remedies.  And  on 
the  title-page  of  his  book  he  has  inscribed 
the  following  :  "  Whoever  would  understand 
the  social  question,  and  wishes  to  aid  in 
solving  it,  must  have  on  his  right  hand  the 
works  on  political  economy,  on  his  left  those 
on  scientific  socialism,  and  before  him  must 
keep  open  the  New  Testament." 

How  emphatically  true  it  is  that  by  the 
adoption  of  this  principle  the  labor  question, 
with  all  its  ramifications,  is  lifted  to  a  higher 
plane  than  the  mere  consideration  of  some 
of  the  narrow  tenets  which  have  accompa- 
nied its   discussion  I     The   hours  of   labor, 


18  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

the  question  of  wages^  in  this  light  do  not 
constitute  the  labor  question,  but  the  great 
struggle  of  hiunanity  to  secure  a  higher 
standard  of  living,  to  be  able  to  indulge  in 
the  spiritual  affairs  of  life, —  those  affairs 
that  are  above  and  beyond  the  mere  contest 
for  subsistence.  And  in  the  settlement  of 
labor  difficulties  —  the  contests  between 
labor  and  capital  as  represented  by  laborers 
and  capitalists  —  this  principle  is  the  only 
one  that  can  have  any  effective  or  lasting 
influence.  Very  many  strikes  and  lockouts 
are  the  result  of  close  observance  of  David 
Harum's  golden  rule  for  the  horse-trader, — 
"  Do  unto  the  other  fellow  as  you  think  the 
other  fellow  is  going  to  do  unto  you,  and 
do  it  fust."  When  this  jockey  rule  in  labor 
matters  is  displaced  by  the  true  Golden 
Rule,  labor  wars  will  cease,  or  be  carried 
on  purely  on  ethical  and  economic  lines, 
avoiding  those  disastrous  personal  conflicts 
which  not  only  interfere  with  business,  as 
represented  by  the  parties  involved,  but 
disturb  the  whole  community.  The  labor 
question  can  be  treated  or  solved  only  by 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  19 

Mr.  Dole's  Coming  People, —  people  who 
apply  religion  and  knowledge  at  the  same 
time  to  a  specific  question. 

We  must  adopt  the  therapeutics  taught 
by  religion.  We  must  understand  the  mal- 
adies of  society  through  sociological  science. 
Each  teaches  that  the  greatest  enemy  of  the 
hiunan  race,  as  well  as  the  greatest  impelling 
force  to  human  progress  and  civihzation,  is 
selfishness.  The  egoism  of  man  has  carried 
him  into  the  worst  crimes,  both  individually 
and  collectively,  the  world  has  ever  wit- 
nessed. Egoism  has  also  carried  him  into 
the  sublimest  altruism  and  into  the  most 
aggressive  movements  for  the  benefit  of  the 
race  at  large.  There  is  no  act  of  altruism 
that  has  not  in  it  the  elements  of  selfishness. 
Rehgion  would  teach  us  that  the  selfishness 
or  the  egoism  shall  be  of  the  purest  quaUty, 
—  shall  be  that  selfishness  which  demands 
of  a  man  such  service  as  shall  increase  the 
happiness  of  those  for  whom  it  is  intended 
as  much  as  for  his  own  happiness.  Man 
lives  by  competitive  force.  He  desires  to 
win  in  the  race.     Religion  teaches  him  that 


20  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

his  service  must  be  for  humanity,  and  not 
for  himself  alone.  It  teaches  that  his  rest- 
lessness, which  was  born  when  man  came  on 
the  earth,  must  be  shaped,  guided,  and  used 
in  the  interest  of  all. 

So  we  can  draw  living  principles  from  all 
the  reformers,  of  whatever  name  or  dis- 
tinction, the  world  has  ever  seen.  The 
sociaUst  teaches  that  society  should  be  con- 
ducted on  the  basis  of  demanding  from  each 
man  according  to  his  abihty  and  giving  to 
each  according  to  his  needs, —  a  doctrine 
which  has  in  it  the  essence  of  Christ's  com- 
mand, but  which  is  dangerous  unless  intel- 
hgently  carried  out.  The  facts  of  sociology 
teach  us  the  results  of  reckless  adhesion  to 
it ;  while  religion,  on  the  other  hand,  teaches 
us  the  great  benefits  of  its  intelligent  adop- 
tion in  the  light  of  the  principles  of  the 
Christian  reHgion. 

Man  is  full  of  faults.  Sociology  under- 
takes to  reveal  the  faults  of  man  in  his 
social  relations,  not  in  a  theological  sense, 
but  in  a  practical  sense.  The  application  of 
the   true   essence  of   rehgion  is  correcting 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  21 

these  faults,  and  making  the  very  passions  of 
men  forcible  in  the  service  of  God. 

It  is  not  my  province  to  speak  to  the 
clergy  of  the  necessity  of  knowledge  in  the 
science  of  sociology ;  but  it  may  be  inti- 
mated that  the  pulpit  is  not  a  lyceiun,  is  not 
a  platform  for  the  especial  discussion  of 
sociological  questions,  but  that  it  is  and 
should  be  a  mediiun  of  instruction  in  those 
deep,  practical,  rehgious  principles  which, 
applied  to  ordinary,  every-day  hmnan  affairs, 
will  lead  to  a  better  understanding,  to  a 
truer  reform  than  we  have  seen,  and  to  the 
enlightenment  of  men.  The  attempt  to 
apply  reHgion  to  sociological  conditions, 
without  a  knowledge  of  all  that  the  science 
of  sociology  can  disclose  in  any  particular 
direction,  comes  very  near  being  an  intel- 
lectual, if  not  a  moral,  crime.  The  pulpit 
is  the  place  for  the  deepest  religious  in- 
struction ;  but,  as  the  deepest  rehgious 
instruction  means  the  weKare  of  the  hu- 
man race  in  its  social  relations,  the  pulpit 
has  a  power  for  good  or  evil  in  this  di- 
rection   which    cannot   be    estimated.       Let 


22  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

the  teaching  of  the  pulpit  be  in  the  Hght  of 
actual  sociological  science,  and  then  the 
broadest  and  the  most  satisfactory  results 
will  be  reached.  Whoever  undertakes  to 
study  science  in  any  department,  whether 
geology  or  sociology  or  biology  or  anthro- 
pology, without  understanding  the  rehgious 
interpretation  of  the  facts  which  these 
sciences  disclose,  falls  short  of  his  duty, 
falls  short  in  his  comprehension  of  the  real, 
Hving  Christ  that  pervades  all  elements  of 
all  society  and  all  revelations  of  science. 


n 

THE   RELATION    OF   POLITICAL 

ECONOMY  TO  THE  LABOR 

QUESTION. 


n 

THE   RELATION   OF   POLITICAL 

ECONOMY   TO   THE   LABOR 

QUESTION. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  sociology,  considered  in  the  Hght 
of  religion,  have  been  promulgated.  These 
principles  form  the  treatment  of  this  chapter, 
in  which  I  shall  speak  of  the  demands  labor 
is  making  or  will  make  upon  political 
economy. 

The  labor  question,  a  short  term  for  the 
evolution  of  industrial  forces,  includes  a  wide 
range  of  sociological  studies,  a  general  treat- 
ment of  which  would  be  impossible.  I  shall 
not,  therefore,  undertake  to  discuss  the  labor 
question  in  its  comprehensiveness,  but  only 
a  phase  of  it.  One  must  not,  however,  con- 
sider the  matters  I  do  not  touch  to  be  held 
in  my  own  estimation  as  unimportant.  I 
simply  treat  a  side  I  have  considered  to  some 

25 


26  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

extent,  iuJlj  recognizing  the  paramount 
importance  of  those  features  I  cannot  even 
mention. 

The  term  "labor  question"  is  used  as 
representing  the  problem  of  working  people 
in  their  struggle  to  secure  a  higher  standard 
of  living,  but  in  this  place  it  is  used  in  a 
limited  sense  and  as  embracing  the  wants  of 
the  wage-laborer,  or  in  a  general  way  as  rep- 
resenting the  discussion  of  the  just  and  equi- 
table distribution  of  profits,  or  the  products 
of  labor  and  capital.  In  this  are  to  be  found 
the  vital  elements  of  the  labor  question, 
whether  from  an  economic  or  an  ethical 
point  of  view.  Political  economists  grow  very 
learned  and  even  fascinating  over  the  wages 
question,  but  usually  on  entirely  economic 
grounds;  while  the  just  distribution  of 
profits  can  best  be  discussed  upon  grounds 
covering  both  economics  and  ethics,  for  jus- 
tice and  equity  are  involved  in  the  considera- 
tion of  the  subject. 

A  just  distribution  of  profits,  by  which  sup- 
port and  provision  for  old  age  may  be  secured, 
depends  much  more  upon  the  cost  of  Uving, 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  27 

habits  of  frugality,  temperance,  good  morals, 
sanitary  conditions,  educational  privileges, 
and  various  forces  of  a  moral  nature  than 
upon  purely  economical  conditions.  We 
must  therefore  view  the  whole  superstructure 
in  looking  at  the  labor  question,  and  not 
merely  the  economic  shingles  of  the  edifice. 

If  I  were  speaking  from  the  pulpit,  and 
wished  to  frame  a  compound  subject  from 
language  taken  from  Scripture,  I  should  say. 
Whatsoever  ye  sow,  that  also  shall  ye  reap,  and 
he  that  is  faithful  over  a  few  things  shall  be 
made  ruler  over  many.  At  least,  the  princi- 
ples underlying  the  sayings  from  which  such 
a  subject  would  be  drawn  apply  most  forcibly 
to  the  consideration  of  the  relations  of  em- 
ployers and  employed,  and  of  each  to  society. 

During  the  past  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years,  political  economy,  as  a  separate  branch 
of  philosophy,  has  sprung  into  existence.  The 
age  has  been  one  of  material  progress.  Eco- 
nomics has  ruled  almost  at  the  expense  of 
ethics,  although  the  same  age  has  seen  won- 
derful structures  of  charitable  and  educational 
design  grow  into  existence.     The  strides  civ- 


28  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

ilization  has  made  command  our  admiration, 
and  its  onward  steps  are  marked  by  numer- 
ous and  convincing  evidences ;  but  such  evi- 
dences are  outside  the  science  of  political 
economy,  and  are  only  considered  by  it  as 
the  cost  may  enter  into  the  distribution  of 
wealth  it  seeks  to  create,  but  not  as  means 
for  a  happier  and  better  condition  wherein 
wealth  could  be  more  successfully  produced. 

Material  progress  has  surpassed  that  of 
the  arts,  painting  and  sculpture,  and  litera- 
ture, for  they  hve  as  well  in  the  past ;  and 
present  efforts  are  rather  to  approach  and 
equal  than  to  excel  the  productions  of  old. 

Under  the  spur  of  this  progress  political 
economy  has  flourished,  —  first,  by  the  pa- 
tronage and  through  the  admiration  of  all 
classes.  England  gave  it  birth,  and  to  it, 
her  writers  claim,  she  owes  her  industrial 
position  in  the  past.  It  may  be  that  to  a 
too  blind  following  of  later  teachings  she 
owes  to-day  the  partial  loss  of  her  old  in- 
dustrial supremacy.  I  am  not  speaking  of 
the  Manchester  school  as  such,  but  of  the 
whole  orthodox  school  of  economists,  which 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  29 

never  admits  to  its  curriculum  the  study  of 
conditions  not  purely  economic.  America, 
if  she  desires  to  occupy  the  place  England 
is  vacating,  must  take  lessons  of  her  mother, 
and  profit  by  her  mistakes. 

The  old  school  has  been  content  to  teach 
the  laws  that  regulate  the  production,  distri- 
bution, and  exchange  of  wealth ;  and  these 
laws  have  formed  the  whole  of  the  science 
of  pohtical  economy,  so  far  as  it  can  be  called 
a  science.  It  has  studiously  avoided  all  other 
matters,  and,  in  the  endeavors  of  its  devotees 
to  constitute  it  a  science,  has  taken  no  cog- 
nizance of  the  conditions  which,  favorable 
or  unfavorable,  must  attend  the  participators 
in  the  production,  distribution,  and  exchange 
of  commodities.  It  has  been  content  to  limit 
itself  to  things  and  their  relations  to  indi- 
vidual and  national  wealth — more  particu- 
larly the  latter  —  rather  than  to  include  in 
its  sphere  of  creed  the  vital  relations  of  men. 
Even  Mr.  MiE,  perhaps  the  most  brilliant 
writer  of  the  age  upon  the  topic  we  are  con- 
sidering, informs  us  *  that "  pohtical  economy 

*  Essays  on  Some  Unpublished  Questions,  1844. 


30  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

is  concerned  with  man  solely  as  a  being  who 
desires  to  possess  wealth,  and  who  is  capable 
of  judging  of  the  comparative  efficacy  of 
means  to  that  end.  It  makes  entire  abstrac- 
tion of  every  other  human  passion  or  motive, 
except  those  which  may  be  regarded  as  per- 
petually antagonizing  principles  to  the  de- 
sire of  wealth ;  namely,  aversion  to  labor, 
and  desire  of  the  present  enjoyment  of  costly 
indulgences.  .  .  .  Political  economy  considers 
mankind  as  occupied  solely  in  acquiring  and 
consiuning  wealth."  Professor  John  K.  In- 
gram *  calls  this  a  vicious  abstraction,  which 
meets  us  on  the  very  threshold  of  poHtical 
economy;  and  Professor  F.  A.  Walker,! 
commenting  upon  this  saying  of  Mill's,  re- 
marks :  "  If  Mr.  Mill  had  merely  meant  that 
the  political  economist  should  begin  by  in- 
quiring what  such  a  monstrous  race  would 
do  under  the  impulse  of  the  antagonizing 
forces  of  greed  and  indolence,  no  one  could 
have  taken  exception.  But  Mr.  Mill  did 
not  mean  this.     He  meant  that  the  poHtical 

*  Penn  Monthly,  November,  1879. 
t  In  Sunday  Afternoon,  May,  1879. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  31 

economist  should  end  here, —  should  literally 
make  entire  abstraction,  once  for  all,  of  every 
other  human  passion  or  motive,  and  at  no 
point  in  his  reasoning  should  take  account 
of  any  one  of  a  score  of  recognizable  and 
appreciable  motives  and  feelings  which  enter 
to  influence  the  actions  of  men  in  respect  to 
wealth,  love  of  country,  love  of  home,  love  of 
friends,  mutual  sympathy  among  members  of 
the  same  class ;  respect  for  labor,  and  interest 
in  the  laboring  class  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
munity at  large  ;  good  will  between  landlord 
and  tenant,  between  employer  and  employed ; 
the  power  of  custom  and  tradition  ;  the  force 
of  inertia,  ignorance,  and  superstition." 

Mr.  Mill's  statements  represent  the  tenets 
of  the  old  school,  although  the  founder  of 
the  science,  Adam  Smith,  began  his  labors 
in  it  as  a  professor  of  moral  philosophy,  and 
taught  it  as  a  branch  of  that  philosophy. 
His  followers,  in  their  ambition,  have 
strayed  far  from  the  doctrines  of  their  great 
master ;  and,  with  their  departure  from  him, 
pohtical  economy  has  lost  the  sympathy  and 
even   the  attention  of    the  wage-workers  of 


32  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

English  and  American  communities,  the 
very  support  it  largely  needs  and  should 
have.  But  it  would  be  unreasonable  to 
expect  them  to  have  much  reverence  for 
what  Carlyle  has  denominated  "  the  dismal 
science/'  and  George  Howell  "the  grab-all 
science  "  ;  "  for/'  says  the  latter,  "  its  funda- 
mental principles  seem  to  be  based  on  the 
Quaker's  advice  to  his  son,  ^Make  money 
honestly  if  you  can,  but  make  money.' " 
The  majority  of  the  followers  of  Smith  have 
forgotten  that  Christianity  says,  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself " ;  "Do 
unto  others  as  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
imto  you  "  ;  "  Love  one  another  "  ;  "  Bear 
ye  one  another's  burdens."  On  the  other 
hand,  they  practically  say.  Love  thyself; 
seek  thine  own  advantage ;  promote  thine 
own  welfare ;  put  money  in  thy  purse :  the 
welfare  of  others  is  not  thy  business. 

It  is  because  of  this  hard,  unsympathetic 
nature  of  the  so-called  science  of  political 
economy  that  the  labor  question  has  come  to 
be  considered  as  distinct  from  it ;  and,  be- 
cause of  the  departure  from  sound   ethical 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  33 

features  of  the  science  by  most  of  the  lead- 
ing writers,  there  has  sprung  up  within  a 
few  years  a  new  school,  which  bids  fair  to 
include  on  its  roll  of  pupils  the  men  in  all 
civilized  lands  who  seek  by  legitimate  means, 
and  without  revolution,  the  amelioration  of 
unfavorable  industrial  and  social  relations 
wherever  foimd  as  the  surest  road  to  com- 
paratively permanent  material  prosperity. 

This  school  is  neither  large  nor  as  yet 
powerful.  Its  first  note  came  from  Sis- 
mondi  in  1818,  and  was  echoed  by  an  emi- 
nent Scotch  divine.  Dr.  Thomas  Chalmers, 
in  1832,  who  undertook,  as  part  of  his  duty 
in  a  course  of  theological  lectures  to  divinity 
students  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  to 
treat  of  political  economy,  which  he  defines 
as  aiming  "at  the  diffusion  of  sufficiency 
and  comfort  throughout  the  mass  of  the 
population  by  a  multiplication  or  enlarge- 
ment of  the  outward  means  and  materials  of 
hiunan  en303nnent."  "*  He  further  declared 
that  his  object  would  be  gained  if  he  coidd 
demonstrate   that   even    for    the    economic 

*  Introduction  to  Chalmers's  Political  Economy,  1832. 


34  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

well-being  of  a  people  their  moral  and  relig- 
ious education  was  the  first  and  greatest 
object  of  national  policy,  and  that  while 
this  is  neglected  a  government  in  its  anx- 
ious and  incessant  labors  for  a  well-condi- 
tioned state  of  the  Commonwealth  would 
only  flounder  from  one  delusive  shift  or 
expedient  to  another,  under  the  double  mis- 
fortune of  being  held  responsible  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  land,  and  yet  finding  that 
to  be  an  element  helplessly  and  hopelessly 
beyond  its  control.  That  the  theory  of 
wealth  had  to  be  examined  in  connection 
with  the  theory  of  population  was  a  truth 
Dr.  Chalmers  recognized  with  the  pohtical 
economists ;  but  he  beHeved  the  great  result- 
ing lesson  of  such  examination  to  be  the 
intimate  alliance  which  obtains  between  the 
economical  and  the  moral,  inasmuch  as  the 
very  best  objects  of  the  science  could  not  by 
any  possibility  be  realized  but  by  dint  of 
prudence  and  virtue  among  the  laboring 
masses. 

Could   this    spirit    have    been    breathed 
through  all  the  wonderful  voliunes  on  po- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  35 

litical  economy  which  have  been  written 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  there  would 
have  been  fewer  works  periodically  pub- 
lished upon  the  causes  of  depressions,  and 
upon  remedies  for  labor  difficulties. 

The  creed  of  the  new  school  is  finding 
its  way  into  the  hearts  and  the  minds  of 
men ;  and  it  has  for  its  advocates  some 
of  the  best  thinkers  in  Europe,  with  a  few 
contemporaries  in  this  country,  who  are  ques- 
tioning the  logic  of  their  old  masters.  I  am 
proud  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  these  new  teachers, 
and  to  declare  my  allegiance  to  such  doc- 
trines, which  are  the  need  of  the  world  to- 
day so  far  as  economic  questions  are  con- 
cerned. They  recognize  as  fundamental 
elements  of  political  economy  the  humanity 
of  the  world  and  its  moral  condition,  because 
the  best  hiunanity  is  to  be  found  where  the 
best  morahty  prevails.  They  recognize  that 
it  is  by  the  labor  of  the  people  employed  in 
various  branches  of  industry  that  all  ranks 
of  the  community,  in  every  condition  of  life, 
annually  subsist ;  and  that,  by  the  produce 
of  this  labor  alone,  nations  become  powerful 


36  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  surplus 
which  can  be  spared  for  the  exigencies  of 
state ;  and  that,  by  the  increase  or  diminu- 
tion of  the  produce  of  this  labor,  states, 
kingdoms,  and  empires  flourish  or  decay.* 

Had  such  principles  foimed  a  part  only 
of  the  considerations  of  economists  during 
the  past  seventy-five  or  one  hundred  years, 
there  would  not  now  be  heard  the  lamenta- 
tions concerning  the  decline  or  unpopularity 
of  the  science  which  occasionally  come  up 
from  the  old  school,  nor  would  the  laboring 
masses  be  averse  to  consulting  and  profiting 
by  the  teachings  of  the  masters  of  one  of 
the  most  attractive  departments  of  human 
knowledge.  We  have  the  testimony  of  Pro- 
fessor Bonamy  Price  of  England  that  politi- 
cal -economy  is  undergoing  a  crisis,  and  is 
passing  through  a  revolution,  both  in  the 
region  of  thought  amongst  its  teachers  and 
students,  as  well  as  in  the  great  world,  in 
the  practical  life  of  mankind.  This  revolu- 
tion will  result  well  for  the  happiness  and 

*  Cf.  Colquhoun,  Wealth,  Power,  and  Resources  of  Britisk 
Empire, 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  37 

welfare  of  our  kind;  for  it  will  bring  to 
their  support,  to  their  improvement,  to  their 
education,  the  best  and  most  thoroughly 
digested  thought  of  the  first  writers  of  the 
world.  Of  this  thought  they  have  long 
been  robbed.  This  crisis  will  not  take  from 
political  economy  one  jot  or  one  tittle  of  the 
grand  principles  which  make  it,  but  will  add 
to  it  those  vitalizing  elements  which  will 
make  of  it  at  once  a  science  and  a  philosophy 
which  will  commend  itself  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  very  workers  whose  prod- 
ucts serve  to  create  the  want  of  the  science 
and  the  science  itself.  It  will  result  in 
bringing  into  the  science  the  treatment  of 
the  uses  of  wealth,  as  well  as  its  accumula- 
tion, distribution,  and  exchange,  and  incite 
discussion  upon  the  relations  of  labor  and 
capital  on  an  ethical  basis ;  combining  with 
the  old  question  the  old  school  always  asks, 
"  Will  it  pay  ?  "  another  and  higher  query, 
"Is  it  right?'' 

Pohtical  economy  has  failed  to  see  that 
the  highest  industrial  prosperity  of  nations 
has   attended   those   periods  most  given  to 


38  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

moral  education  and  practices.  History  is 
full  of  lessons  from  which  the  new  school 
will  attempt  to  teach  that  the  growth  of  a 
healthy,  intelligent,  and  virtuous  operative 
population  is  as  much  for  the  pecuniary 
interest  of  manufacturers  themselves  as  for 
civilization ;  that  the  dechne  of  the  morals 
of  the  factory  means  the  decline  of  the 
nation ;  and  that  the  morals,  the  force,  the 
higher  welfare  of  the  nation,  depend  upon 
the  welfare  of  the  working  masses. 

From  these  premises  I  predict  that  pohti- 
cal  economy  will,  in  the  near  future,  deal 
largely  with  the  family,  with  wealth,  with 
the  state,  as  the  three  features  of  its  doc- 
trines, and  not  confine  itseK  to  wealth  alone. 
Under  family,  it  wiU  take  cognizance  of  the 
relations  of  the  sexes,  marriage  and  divorce, 
the  position  of  woman,  and  the  education 
and  employment  of  children ;  the  latter  f  omi- 
ing  the  most  vital  element  in  the  economic 
considerations  of  the  scientists,  as  well  as 
inviting  the  ardent  sympathies  of  the  phi- 
lanthropists. Under  wealth,  the  old  chapters 
will  be  revivified  in  the  light  of  moral  dis- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  39 

cernment,  relative  to  all  the  delicate,  but 
always  reciprocal,  relations  of  labor  and 
capital.  Under  state,  political  ethics  will  be 
taught  as  a  direct  means  of  securing  the 
highest  material  and  social  prosperity. 

These  considerations  in  the  future  will  be 
demanded  to  answer  the  question  constantly 
put,  how  labor  may  be  rendered  more  gen- 
erally attractive  and  remunerative,  without 
impairing  the  efficiency  of  capital,  so  that  all 
the  workers  of  society  may  have  their  proper 
share  in  the  distribution  of  profits.  This  I 
conceive  to  be  the  true  labor  question  of 
to-day  in  the  limited  sense.  Of  course  it 
is  not  that  of  the  sociaHsts,  nor  of  many 
radical  labor  reformers  who  find  themselves 
on  the  verge  of  socialism,  but  have  not  the 
courage  to  adopt  its  tenets;  but  it  is  the 
sober  question  of  the  sober,  industrious,  and 
thrifty  workingmen,  and  the  himiane,  large- 
hearted  employers,  of  oui*  country, —  two 
types  of  men  I  prefer  to  speak  to,  hoping 
thereby  to  indirectly  speak  to  the  Shylocks 
of  both  orders;  for,  while  the  capitalists 
have   their    unprincipled    Shylocks   in    one 


40  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

capacity,    the     reformers     have    theirs    in 
another. 

The  hmited  labor  question,  as  I  have  an- 
nounced it,  seeks  no  panacea.  It  recognizes 
the  faults  of  our  civiHzation  as  those  be- 
longing to  development,  not  to  inauguration. 
"  And  that  there  is  not  any  one  abuse  or 
injustice  prevailing  in  society  by  merely 
aboHshing  which  the  human  race  would  pass 
out  of  suffering  into  happiness."  *  It  rec- 
ognizes the  fallacy  of  attempting  to  win 
advantages  by  isolated  attacks  at  some 
special  point,  and  that,  like  Christianity, 
civilization  and  its  wonderful  movements,  it 
must  attack  all  along  the  line,  and  hence 
make  itself  felt  in  all  progressive  steps  and 
attempts  to  reach  a  higher  and  better  life. 
It  reaches  beyond  the  hackneyed  statements 
of  the  old  school,  that  the  interests  of  labor 
and  capital  are  one,  and  incorporates  them 
with  another,  that  they  are  reciprocal ;  and 
while  it  freely  admits  that  capital  loans 
machinery  and  all  the  auxiharies  of  pro- 
duction to  the  workingman,  without  which 

*  Chapters  on  Socialism,  Mill. 


OF  THE  LABOE  QUESTION  41 

advance  he  could  not  labor,  except  at  ruin- 
ous processes,  it  wants  capital  to  feel  that  it 
depends  for  its  vitaHty  upon  the  ability  of 
labor  to  accept  the  loan ;  that  capital  in- 
vested in  the  machinery  or  the  plant  is  dead 
matter  until  the  operative  vitaHzes  it  with 
his  presence;  and  it  knows  well,  that,  if 
either  undertakes  to  do  as  it  chooses,  it 
either  falls  or  is  obliged  to  accept  the  most 
meagre  results.  It  demands  that  each 
should  consult  the  other  if  both  are  to  be 
active  and  productive ;  and  its  advocates 
find  that  in  all  communities  where  reciprocal 
interests  prevail,  and  a  moral  standard  act- 
uates both  parties,  the  best  prosperity  is 
sustained.  And,  reaching  farther  than  in- 
dividuals and  beyond  industrial  success,  it 
claims  that  a  broad  catholicity  in  trade  is 
essential  to  national  success,  and  must  take 
the  place  of  the  grasping  principles  of  the 
old  school,  which  have  been  sufficiently 
disastrous  to  both  individuals  and  to  nations. 
These  demands,  which  seek  to  avoid  adjust- 
ments by  all  and  every  revolutionary  means 
suggested  by  enthusiasts,  and  which  appear 


42  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

upon  the  surface  at  every  recurrence  of 
industrial  depression,  are  based  upon  ethical 
grounds,  and  yet  in  them  He  the  elements 
of  economic  progress. 

From  these  statements  it  will  be  seen  how 
thoroughly  essential  it  is  that  pohtical  econ- 
omy should  deal  with  all  the  conditions  of 
men, —  their  passions,  crimes,  appetites, — 
and  should  teach  them  how  to  make  their 
passions  subserve  the  highest  interests  of 
hiunanity,  instead  of  abusing  them  and  mak- 
ing them  devilish. 

PoHtical  economy,  when  it  has  been 
brought  to  the  height  of  its  grand  mission, 
should,  above  all  other  considerations,  point 
out  the  causes  which  have  operated  in  lead- 
ing people  to  good  or  evil,  to  prosperity  or 
decline.  Investigation  is  bringing  these 
causes  to  light.  When  political  economy 
and  history  shall  have  progressed  in  these 
directions  sufficiently  for  general  history  to 
become  philosophical,  the  first  places  wiQ 
not  be  allotted,  as  now,  in  most  of  the 
works  of  our  classic  authors,  to  conquerors, 
haughty  governors  who  enriched  cities  by 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  43 

ruining  countries,  and  to  pretended  heroes, 
who  have  been  the  seeming  scourges  of 
hmnanity ;  nor  will  the  grand  epochs  of  his- 
tory be  exclusively  associated  with  such 
celebrities,  but  will  be  dedicated  to  those 
great  men,  the  memory  of  whom  has  been 
too  often  neglected.  I  mean  those  who 
have  loved  peace,  honored  honest  motives, 
strengthened  rural  life,  favored  good  local 
government,  given  protection  to  smaller  and 
struggling  nations,  and  contributed  without 
noise  or  ostentation  to  the  development  of 
pubHc  prosperity  by  the  practice  of  the 
highest  morality  in  commercial  and  pohtical 
life.* 

Corruption  comes  from  two  sources,  the 
high  and  the  low,  but  generally  springs 
from  the  governing  or  superior  classes.  It 
sometimes  derives  its  chief  strength  from 
persons  connected  with  estabhshments  for 
labor ;  and  in  this  case  the  evil  may  have 
been  propagated  either  by  the  proprietors  or 
the  workmen :  but,  no  matter  in  what  way 
it  originates,  it  has  really  but  one  leading 

*Cf.  Le  Play,  Organization  of  Labor,  pp.  66,  67. 


44  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

cause, —  the  transgression  of  the  moral  law ; 
and  with  such  transgression  there  always 
comes  industrial  decHne.  The  prosecution 
of  this  line  of  thought  leads  to  the  fullest 
indorsement  of  Le  Play,  when  he  says  that 
"  the  best  expression  of  the  moral  law  is  the 
Decalogue.  .  .  .  The  people  who  show  the 
most  respect  for  these  commandments  are 
precisely  those  who  enjoy,  in  the  highest 
degree,  competence,  stability,  and  harmony. 
In  carrying  on  the  useful  arts  under  the  in- 
fluences of  these  divine  laws  and  precepts, 
the  best  organization  of  labor  is  everywhere 
effected, —  that  organization  which,  par  ex- 
cellence, may  be  called  the  customs  of  work- 
shops." Dependence  upon  such  precepts 
would  carry  the  people  of  the  world  over 
periods  of  depression  without  an  avalanche 
of  solutions  at  every  stage  for  depressions. 
Just  at  this  time,  when  prosperity  has 
opened  all  the  factories  in  the  land,  and 
crowded  all  our  wharves  with  produce,  the 
danger  is  great ;  for  moral  decline  is  espe- 
cially provoked  by  a  kind  of  error,  finding 
its  support  in  the  doctrine  of  uninterrupted 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  45 

and  absolute  progress,  signalizing  the  com- 
ing of  an  indefinite  era  of  prosperity,  for 
which  the  people  are  to  depend  upon  bHnd 
destiny,  without  being  called  upon  to  merit 
it  by  devotion,  personal  sacrifice,  or  patriot- 
ism. This  tendency,  always  a  positive  evil, 
is  showing  its  influence  at  this  time  in  sud- 
denly inflated  prices  of  commodities,  a  spirit 
of  speculation,  and  a  willingness  to  extend 
credits.  The  result  can  easily  be  foreseen 
in  the  light  of  the  political  economy  of  the 
labor  question, —  a  few  more  years  of  re- 
markable prosperity,  and  then  a  period  of 
depression,  when  everybody  will  be  trying 
to  discover  the  cause  of  the  hard  times, 
when,  so  far  as  history  is  reliable,  the  chief 
cause  will  be  the  same  as  it  ever  has  been, — 
extended  personal  credits.  Inflated  com- 
mercial credits  will  always  bring  disaster. 

The  principles  of  ethico-political  economy 
lie  deeper  down  than  the  laws  of  rent,  profits, 
supply  and  demand,  cost  of  production,  the 
wages-fund,  and  the  like.  The  ti'ue  matter  is 
the  essential  constitution  of  himian  nature  and 
the  fundamental  relations  of  man  to  natural 


46  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

and  moral  forces.  Out  of  these  are  drawn  the 
ultimate  justification  of  economic  laws.* 
Without  them,  and  with  a  too  persistent  ad- 
hesion to  absolutely  economic  laws,  the 
effect  upon  the  industries  of  the  world  has 
been  discouraging.  Ethical  wisdom  alone 
can  remedy  such  things.  This  suggests  that 
the  precepts  of  the  Decalogue  cannot  be  pre- 
served by  a  people,  except  when  each  gen- 
eration has  the  power,  and  the  desire  which 
gives  the  power,  to  teach  them  to  the  one 
which  follows ;  and  this  can  only  be  secured 
by  strong  moral  elements  united  with  the 
sacredness  of  the  family.  In  the  sacredness 
of  the  family  is  found  the  strength  of  a 
people.  The  desire  to  see  a  family  growing 
up  begets  the  industry  and  frugality  which 
allows  of  its  support;  and  any  industrial 
condition  which  prevents  the  young  men 
from  becoming  the  heads  of  families  is  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  best  economical  pros- 
perity of  the  race.  Statistics  prove  conclu- 
sively three  things, — 1st,  That  marriages  are 
decreasing  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of 

*  Cf .  Henry  A.  James,  Communism  in  America,  p.  47. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  4  i 

population  ;  2d,  That  divorces  increase ;  3d, 
That  illegitimate  births  increase.  These  in- 
controvertible facts  are  either  the  results  of 
definite  causes,  or  the  causes  of  results  not 
yet  made  clear ;  and  I  contend  that,  in  either 
case,  society,  and  certainly  the  labor  ques- 
tion, has  the  right  to  demand  their  recog- 
nition in  the  science  of  political  economy,  as 
directly  affecting  the  equitable  distribution 
of  the  profits  of  production  and  the  condition 
of  all  engaged  in  the  work  of  production. 

The  direct  and  sure  bearing  of  the  in- 
fluences springing  from  a  condition  of  debt 
cannot  be  over-estimated  so  far  as  the  evil 
effects  upon  industrial  prosperity  are  con- 
cerned ;  and  when  a  family,  in  order  to  bring 
to  itself  the  ordinary  necessaries  of  exist- 
ence, is  obliged  to  find  a  margin  against  it 
at  the  close  of  the  year,  we  may  be  sure, 
whether  the  debt  is  the  result  of  extrava- 
gance, or  want  of  work,  or  want  of  proper 
remuneration,  there  is  a  lessening  of  moral 
tone  and  an  increasing  carelessness  of  obHga- 
tions  incurred,  results  which  have  an  imme- 
diate and  unmistakable  bearing    upon    the 


48  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

welfare  of  the  eommunity.  Surely,  as  a  matr 
ter  of  economics  only,  the  grand  science  of 
Adam  Smith  should  recognize  these  things. 

The  influence  of  stable  family  life  upon 
industrial  prosperity  leads  us  very  naturally 
to  consider  the  position  of  woman  in  her 
relations  to  the  productions  of  a  state. 

The  loss  of  proper  respect  to  women  al- 
ways precedes  decline  of  any  description, 
and  especially  marks  the  reign  of  iromoral 
life.  That  dehcacy  of  sentiment  which, 
among  Anglo-Saxons,  shields  women  passing 
alone  through  public  ways,  relying  upon  the 
protection  of  all  men,  when  wanting,  is  too 
often  replaced  by  gross  impropriety.  This 
loss  of  respect  has  been,  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  the  result  either  of  disorganization 
in  private  family  life,  or  in  the  place  of 
labor :  but,  however  it  grows,  it  always  les- 
sens resistance  to  corruption, —  in  fact, 
blinds  the  mind  to  corruption ;  for  it  saps 
the  authority  of  government  to  a  greater 
degree  than  it  does  that  of  the  father  or  the 
proprietor. 

When  woman  is  compelled  by  industrial 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  49 

customs  to  cease  to  consider  the  highest  con- 
secration of  her  hfe  to  be  to  the  duties  of 
maternity,  she  ceases  to  be  the  minister  of  the 
domestic  circle,  the  very  foundation  of  ma- 
terial prosperity.  Nor  does  this  consecration 
prevent  her  highest  intellectual  development, 
—  in  fact,  it  demands  it,  and  her  political 
power  and  equahty,  too  ;  but  when  her  wages 
and  the  wages  of  her  little  ones  become  nec- 
essary for  the  support  of  the  family,  that  it 
may  be  kept  intact,  the  natural  result,  in  due 
time,  is  that  very  loss  of  respect  I  have 
counted  so  disastrous. 

I  have  reference  only  to  principles  in- 
volved ;  and  these  principles  teach  that  the 
condition  of  inferiority  into  which  people 
plunge  when  respect  for  woman  is  lost  from 
any  cause,  whether  from  her  work  in  a  fac- 
tory under  modem  conditions  in  England 
and  America,  or  beside  a  mule  in  Belgium, 
or  under  a  heavy  burden  in  Italy,  cannot 
be  too  much  dwelt  upon.  The  mischief  it 
effects  weighs  upon  society  at  large,  and 
especially  upon  the  wage-receivers,  whom  it 
renders   too    often   incapable    of    satisfying 


50  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

that  legitimate  desire  which  prompts  them 
to  seek  promotion  in  social  ranks.  In  fact, 
whenever  honest  love  has  lost  its  attraction, 
and  the  consent  of  the  bride  implies  a  finan- 
cial recompense,  young  men  make  no  efforts 
to  provide  for  marriage  by  securing  a  home 
for  a  family,  but  estabhsh  themselves  prema- 
turely, and  roam  about  all  their  lives  among 
boarding-houses,  depriving  themselves  of  the 
moral  and  material  advantages  intimately 
associated  with  an  indissoluble  union  of  the 
family  and  the  fireside.*  Such  a  man  does 
not,  as  a  rule,  hold  himself  bound  to  engage^ 
in  any  thing  which  tends  prospectively  to 
moral  amelioration ;  and,  having  taken  no 
pains  to  secure  a  home  for  a  family,  he  has 
lost  the  very  best  opportunity  of  acquiring 
frugal  habits.  His  family  is  compelled  to 
give  the  preference  to  city  factories,  and,  as 
a  natural  consequence  of  loss  of  respect,  des- 
titution and  misery  in  time  are  sure  to  fol- 
low, especially  when  the  combination  with 
other  manufactories,  commercial  crises,  and 

*Some  of  these  thoughts  on  the  family  are  taken  in  part 
from  Le  Play,  Organization  of  Labor, —  a  work  I  commend  to 
all  students  of  social  economy. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  51 

public  and  private  reverses  have  led  to  a 
stoppage  of  labor.  Under  such  circiun- 
stances  the  estabhshment  of  wages  becomes 
an  embarrassing  subject.  Difficulties  in- 
crease, leading  to  irritating  discussions ;  and 
the  low  moral  tone  of  the  operative,  resiJt- 
ing  from  his  first  loss  of  respect  for  his  wife, 
together  with  the  grasping  or  impecunious 
state  of  his  employer,  brings  about  most  un- 
happy conditions  so  often  observed.  Not 
that  other  causes  do  not  enter  into  the  case, 
but  those  I  have  stated  are  potent,  and  in 
themselves  so  forcibly  affect  the  prosperity 
of  communities,  that  they  have  their  place 
in  the  philosophy  of  economics,  where  the 
poHtical  economist  of  the  future  will  find 
them  fully  discussed.  In  the  home  Hes  the 
future  welfare  of  oiu*  country.  It  is  a  hope- 
ful sign  that  in  general  these  conditions 
under  modern  industry,  as  will  be  seen  in 
the  next  chapter,  are  far  more  favorable 
than  of  old. 

The  material  prosperity  of  a  community 
depends  much  upon  the  health  of  its  work- 
ers, and  the  health  of  workers  depends  in 


52  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

a  very  large  degree  upon  sanitary  surround- 
ings. In  order  that  the  physical  condition 
of  the  people  may  be  improved  by  every 
means,  social  economy  deals  with  the  sub- 
jects of  sewerage,  tenement  houses,  Hght, 
and  ventilation ;  and  in  this  respect  social 
science  teaches  valuable  lessons  to  poHtical 
science. 

In  this  connection  I  cannot  refrain  from 
weaving  in  a  few  thoughts  from  W.  R.  Greg, 
an  English  writer,  with  some  of  my  own. 
Dwelling  upon  the  physical  and  moral  devel- 
opment of  the  race  as  essential  to  prosperity^, 
it  may  be  asked.  What  may  we  not  rationally 
hope  for  when  the  condition  of  the  masses 
shall  receive  that  concentrated  and  urgent 
attention  which  has  hitherto  been  directed 
to  furthering  the  interests  of  more  favored 
ranks?  what,  when  charity,  which  for  cen- 
tm-ies  has  been  doing  mischief,  shall  begin  to 
do  good  ?  what,  when  the  countless  pulpits, 
that  so  far  back  as  history  can  reach,  have 
been  preaching  Catholicism  or  Anglicanism, 
Presbyterianism  or  Calvinism,  or  other  isms, 
shall  set  to  work  to   preach  Christianity  at 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  58 

last?  Do  we  ever  even  approach  to  a  due 
estimate  of  the  degree  in  which  every  strong- 
hold of  vice  or  folly  overthrown,  exposes, 
weakens,  and  undermines  every  other?  of 
the  extent  to  which  every  improvement,  so- 
cial, moral,  or  material,  makes  every  other 
easier  ?  of  the  countless  ways  in  which  phys- 
ical reform  reacts  on  intellectual  and  ethical 
progress  and  the  prosperity  of  our  indus- 
tries? Under  the  constant  teaching  of  a 
moral  philosophy  which  shall  embrace  the 
political  economy  of  the  labor  question, 
what  a  transf oi-mation  —  almost  a  transfigu- 
ration —  will  not  spread  over  the  condition 
of  civihzed  communities,  when,  by  a  few 
generations,  during  which  hygienic  science 
and  sense  shall  have  been  in  the  ascend- 
ant, the  restored  health  of  mankind  shall 
have  corrected  the  morbid  exaggerations  of 
our  appetites ;  when,  by  insisting  upon  the 
healthy  environment  of  our  toiling  masses, 
the  more  questionable  instincts  and  pas- 
sions, which,  under  such  rule  as  I  have  indi- 
cated, shall  have  been  less  and  less  exercised 
and  stimulated  for  centuries  perhaps,  shall 


54  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

have  faded  into  comparative  quiescence,  and 
have  come  under  the  control  of  the  will; 
when,  from  the  expulsion  of  vitiated  air, 
disordered  constitutions,  whether  diseased, 
criminal,  or  defective,  which  now  spread  and 
propagate  so  much  mischief,  and  incur  so 
much  useless  expense  to  taxpayers,  shall 
have  been  largely  eliminated ;  when  sounder 
systems  of  educating  the  young  shall  have 
prevented  the  too  early  awakening  of  natural 
desires;  when  more  rational,  higher,  and 
soberer  notions  of  what  is  needful  and  desir- 
able in  social  life,  a  wiser  simplicity  in  hving, 
and  a  more  thorough  conformity  to  moral 
law  shall  have  rendered  the  legitimate  grati- 
fication of  our  appetites  more  easy  and  bene- 
ficial, and  when  that  which  is  needed  for 
a  happy  home  shall  have  become  attainable 
by  frugahty,  sobriety,  and  toil  ? 

These  conditions,  so  desirable  to  be 
reached,  are  not  impossible  ones,  and  are  not 
to  be  reached  by  the  revolutionary  schemes 
of  any  party  or  sect,  but  by  the  gradual 
adoption  of  sanitary  laws  in  the  dweUings 
and    homes    of    the   people ;   and   the   new 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  55 

school  will  teach  that  the  secondary,  and 
often  the  primary,  causes  and  encourage- 
ments of  intemperance  are  bad  air  and  un- 
wholesome food,  which  create  a  craving  for 
drink ;  bad  company,  which  tempts  it ; 
undue  facilities,  which  conduce  to  it ;  squahd 
homes,  which  drive  men  forth  for  cheerful- 
ness; and  the  want  of  other  comfortable 
places  of  resort,  which  leaves  no  refuge  but 
the  pubhcan's  parlor  or  den.  And  if,  on 
the  other  hand,  we  find  that  the  conse- 
quences are  poverty,  squalid  homes,  bru- 
tahty,  crime,  and  the  transmission  and 
perpetuation  of  vitiated  constitutions,  who 
can  say  they  cannot  be  prevented  by  the 
sound  administration  of  sanitary  laws,  which 
shall  prohibit  the  existence  of  bad  air,  of 
unventilated  dwellings,  the  undue  midtipH- 
cation  and  constant  accessibility  of  gin  and 
beer  shops,  and  the  poisoning  of  wholesome 
food  and  drink?  We  cannot  discuss  the 
labor  question  from  either  the  ethical  or 
economic  side  without  consideration  of  the 
temperance  question ;  and  from  the  results 
of  such  consideration  it  is  perfectly  clear  to 


56  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

my  own  mind  that  the  solution  of  the  tem- 
perance question  is  largely  in  the  control  of 
the  employers  of  labor.  The  interests  of 
capital  as  well  as  of  labor,  the  interests  of 
rehgion  itself,  demand  a  sober  and  indus- 
trious community ;  and,  when  the  employers 
of  labor  generally  shall  demand  abstinence 
from  alcoholic  drinks  as  a  qualification  for 
employment,  the  ugly  problem,  so  far  as  the 
working  masses  are  concerned,  will  be  far  on 
the  way  to  settlement.  What  will  bring  the 
employers  to  the  same  issue  is  perhaps  a 
knottier  problem.  The  presence  of  crime 
works  a  direct  injury  upon  the  welfare  of 
the  workingman  in  many  ways.  It  costs 
him  more  to  live  because  of  it ;  it  disturbs 
his  sense  of  justice  because  the  convict 
works  at  the  same  occupation  which  fur- 
nishes his  support :  but,  while  the  labor 
reformer  cries  for  the  aboHtion  of  convict 
labor,  the  pohtical  economy  of  the  labor 
question  cries  for  the  reduction  of  the  nmn- 
ber  of  criminals  by  the  prevention  of  crime 
as  the  surest  and  most  permanent  remedy 
for   whatever   evils   may   grow   out   of  the 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  o7 

practice  of  employing  convicts  in  productive 
labor.  We  make  criminals  now ;  for  three- 
fourths  of  the  crime  committed  is  by  young 
men  who  are  temporarily  led  astray,  and  the 
fact  that  fifty  per  cent  of  all  the  convicts  in 
the  states  prisons  of  the  United  States  are 
under  twenty-six  years  of  age  only  confirms 
the  estimate.  These  accidental  criminals  we 
make  into  positive  convicts,  to  be  fed  upon 
the  production  of  men  outside.  We  shall 
learn  better  methods  in  the  future  civil  state, 
in  which  wise  and  effective  legislation, 
backed  by  adequate  administration  resulting 
from  a  sound  public  sentiment,  shall  have 
made  all  violation  of  law,  all  habitual  crime, 
obviously,  and  inevitably,  a  losing  game,  and 
when  the  distribution  of  wealth,  and  its  use, 
shall  receive  both  from  the  statesman  and 
the  economist  the  same  sedulous  attention 
which  is  now  concentrated  exclusively  upon 
its  acquisition.*" 

The  intelligent  workingmen  of  this  coun- 
try do  not  object  to  wealth,  but  to  its  mis- 
use.    They  know  that  luxury  —  I  speak  of 

*  Professor  F.  A.  Walker. 


58  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

enervating  luxury  —  depopulates  the  coun- 
try, and  annihilates  by  degrees  the  class 
of  husbandmen ;  for  indolence  and  avidity 
tempt  them  to  quit  a  laborious  occupation 
for  one  which  is  more  lucrative,  though  less 
certain.  The  ease  in  which  the  artifices  of 
luxury  live  seduces  the  indigent  peasantry, 
draws  them  to  the  manufacturing  centres,  and 
the  country  is  deserted.  Luxury  corrupts 
the  morals  of  men, —  a  truth  no  ethical  writer 
will  decline  to  adopt ;  but  morals  may  sub- 
sist with  wealth  :  it  is  luxury  which  vitiates. 
It  occasions  continual  variations  of  taste  and 
manners.  The  expense  luxury  requires  in- 
flames cupidity ;  money  is  run  after,  and 
purchased  at  any  rate ;  and  from  the  moment 
this  mercenary  greediness  possesses  the  mass 
of  the  nation,  as  it  did  to  considerable  extent 
in  1873,  virtue  becomes  ridiculous ;  honor,  a 
chimera;  and  speculative  credit  takes  the 
place  of  a  sound  basis  for  commercial  transac- 
tions. Merit  is  then  weighed  by  gold  :  digni- 
ties and  employments  and  offices  are  valued 
only  in  proportion  to  the  money  they  bring 
in.     The  rigor  of  law  yields  to  the  impulse 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  59 

of  luxury.  In  this  condition  a  fatal  calm 
exists  as  a  sure  corollary,  which  looks  like 
prosperity,  but  which  simply  forbodes  a  vio- 
lent storm. 

The  ethical  view  of  the  matter  insists  that 
luxury  debases  the  soul  and  the  mind,  and 
therefore  demands  that  political  economy 
should  teach  the  science  of  the  use  of  wealth, 
as  well  as  of  its  acquisition ;  and  the  best  use 
of  wealth  can  only  follow  the  possession  of 
high  moral  character  by  its  owner. 

The  use  of  accumulation  beyond  the  actual 
needs  of  industry  involves,  of  course,  the 
highest  elements  of  character  in  both  the 
parties  to  its  groy>^th :  for  the  resources 
which  render  organized  or  individual  labor 
most  effective  are  on  the  side  of  capital, 
while  the  industry,  patience,  skill,  and  disci- 
phne  which  give  life  and  action  to  the  dead 
masses  of  capital,  are  on  the  side  of  labor ; 
and,  in  any  community  where  there  is  no 
combination  of  the  two  forces,  both  will 
waste  away,  and  the  nation  decline  and  per- 
ish ;  and  unless  there  be  an  inteUigent  settle- 
ment, upon  high  moral  grounds,  of  the  re- 


60  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

spective  claims  of  each  force  in  the  combina- 
tion, ceaseless  strife  and  conflicts  will,  by  a 
longer  and  more  miserable  route,  lead  to  the 
same  catastrophe.^  These  propositions  must 
be  true  if  we  recognize  what  labor  truly  is. 
John  Kuskin  has  given  the  best  definition : 
"  Labor  is  the  contest  of  the  life  of  man  with 
an  opposite ;  the  term  '  life '  including  his  in- 
tellect, soul,  and  physical  power,  contending 
with  question,  difficulty,  trial,  or  material 
force.  Labor  is  of  a  higher  or  lower  order 
as  it  includes  more  or  fewer  of  the  elements 
of  life ;  and  labor  of  good  quality,  in  any 
kind,  includes  always  as  much  intellect  and 
f eeHng  as  will  fully  and  harmoniously  regulate 
the  physical  force."  t  With  this  idea  of 
labor,  that  man  is  richest  who,  having  per- 
fected the  functions  of  his  own  life  to  the 
utmost,  has  also  the  widest  influence,  both 
personal  and  by  means  of  his  accumulative 
wealth,  over  the  lives  of  others ;  and,  again, 
that  nation  is  the  richest  which  nourishes 
the  greatest  number  of  noble  and  happy  hu- 
man  beings. J     All   this   may    seem    to   be 

*  Anonymous.  t  Unto  This  Last.         t  Cf.  Ibid. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  61 

strange  political  economy ;  but  it  is  of  that 
nature  which  the  future  will  demand  as  lead- 
ing most  directly  to  national  and  material 
prosperity.  The  new  school  will  recognize 
all  the  good  that  comes  from  the  doctrine  of 
laissez /aire,  ov  the  "let  alone"  theory  of 
the  old :  but  it  will  insist  upon  the  Hvehest 
activity  on  the  part  of  capitaHsts  to  see  to  it 
that  their  employes  are  put  upon  the  best 
possible  footing  as  to  all  the  material  sui*- 
roundings  of  Hf  e ;  that  they  have  all  the  ad- 
vantages to  health,  morals,  and  happiness, 
which  come  from  sanitary  regulations  and 
practical  education ;  and  it  will  teach  em- 
ployers that  a  larger  dividend  can  be  drawn 
from  the  products  of  a  community  compara- 
tively free  from  crime,  intemperance,  pov- 
erty, and  vice  of  all  kinds,  than  from  one 
where  these  things  are  tolerated ;  and  it  will 
teach  labor  to  demand  of  society  the  condi- 
tions I  have  described  as  the  surest  means  of 
raising  wages,  shortening  hours,  and  giving 
it  the  most  attractive  and  remunerative  em- 
ployment. 

Laissez  faire  can  never  be  a  substitute 


62  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

for  the  higher  principles  of  Christianity,  and 
they  always  demand  action.  "  Society,  when 
at  times  it  awakens,  by  periods  of  industrial 
distress,  from  dreams  of  a  new  golden  age, 
to  be  realized  by  mechanical  inventions, 
march  of  intellect,  accumulation  of  capital, 
or  by  sound  political  economy,  finds  itself 
compelled  by  terrible  necessity  to  abandon 
the  system  of  laissez  fairs,  and  obliged  to 
embark  in  a  struggle  for  life,  with  the  ele- 
ments of  disorganization  and  ruin." 

The  only  effectual  method  of  action  is 
that  in  which  each  person  begins  by  improv- 
ing and  reforming  himself ;  that  is,  a  revival 
of  feelings  of  duty  and  moral  obligation, 
whose  decay  is  always  the  prunary  source  of 
evil,  leads  to  innumerable  individual  efforts, 
and  to  an  improved  state  of  public  opinion, 
without  which  legislation  can  do  but  httle. 
To  be  sure,  we  believe  that  Providence 
which  rules  the  destinies  of  nations  will 
bring  about  its  appointed  ends  by  its  ap- 
pointed means ;  but  it  is  no  less  certain  that 
each  one  of  us,  laborer  or  capitalist,  has 
duties  to  perform,  the  responsibihty  of  which 


OF  TUB  LABOR  QUESTION  63 

cannot  be  shifted  to  the  shoulders  of  Fate, — 
another  and  older  name  for  the  system  of 
laissez  /aire.  The  new  school  avlU  demand 
that  every  one  who,  in  his  public  or  private 
capacity,  can  do  anything  to  relieve  misery, 
to  combat  evil,  to  assert  right,  to  redress 
wrong,  shall  do  it  with  his  whole  heart  and 
soul.* 

It  will  teach  that  government  "  should  not 
connive  at  what  is  openly  and  notoriously 
immoral,  even  for  revenue  purposes ;  nor  will 
it  permit,  by  its  sanction,  a  free  trade  in 
vice,  with  only  the  restriction  that  it  shall 
be  carried  on  wholesale  instead  of  at  retail." 

The  very  best  residts  to  be  gained  depend 
almost  entirely  upon  systems  of  industrial 
organization  with  law  and  morality  dominant 
in  society.  Comte  has  told  the  world  that 
"  the  state  of  every  part  of  the  social  whole 
at  any  tune  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
contemporaneous  state  of  all  others.  Re- 
ligious behef,  philosophy,  science,  the  fine 
arts,  commerce,  navigation,  government, — all 
are  in  close  mutual  dependence  on  one  an- 

*  Cf.  Laing's  Essays. 


64  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

other,  insomuch  that,  when  any  considerable 
change  takes  place  in  one,  we  may  know  that 
a  parallel  change  in  all  the  others  has  pre- 
ceded or  will  follow  it." 

Every  accession  to  "man's  empire  over 
nature  "  may  be,  and  probably  is,  productive 
of  good  to  mankind  at  large ;  but  we  should 
never  forget  that  any  increase  in  the  material 
forces  at  our  disposal  involves  an  increase  of 
intellectual  and  moral  energy.  Such  doctrine 
will  inspire  all  classes  with  an  endeavor  to 
remedy  the  defects  of  the  present  edifice, 
rather  than  attempt  a  new  construction  upon 
its  ruins.  Such  endeavors  may  meet  with 
failure  in  one  age,  and  be  followed  by  suc- 
cess in  another,  as  grand  mechanical  projects, 
instituted  before  their  time,  fail  in  the  gen- 
eration which  saw  their  inception,  yet  be- 
come the  admired  achievements  of  the  next. 
If  the  principle  be  true,  let  it  be  followed  by 
employers  and  by  men  till  the  requisite 
higher  notions  of  morality  be  planted  firmly. 
We  can  then  join  the  passionate  vehemence 
of  Carlyle  in  this  utterance :  "  The  leaders 
of  industry,  if  industry  is  ever  to  be  led,  are 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  65 

virtually  the  captains  of  the  world.  If  there 
be  no  nobleness  in  them,  there  will  never  be 
an  aristocracy  more." 

The  political  economy  of  the  coming  gen- 
eration of  writers  will  insist  upon  proper 
contracts  respecting  labor  ;  and,  while  it  will 
throw  aside  the  idea  of  productive  co-opera- 
tion, it  will  be  able  to  discover  a  system  of 
contract  which  shall  improve  the  whole  con- 
dition of  the  employe  so  far  as  his  relations 
to  capital  and  the  management  of  capital  are 
concerned.  In  the  recent  past,  social  phi- 
losophy has  become  more  and  more  cog- 
nizant of  the  distinctions  between  the  ex- 
change of  commodities  and  the  contract  for 
services ;  and  mildew  will  strike  the  political 
economy  which  denies  the  validity  of  the 
distinction.  "  Seventy-five  years  ago  scarcely 
a  single  law  existed  in  any  country  of 
Europe  for  regulating  the  contract  for  ser- 
vices in  the  interest  of  the  laboring  classes. 
At  the  same  time  the  contract  for  commod- 
ities was  everywhere  subject  to  minute  and 
incessant  regulation.  .  .  .  Can  there  be  won- 
der that  statesmen  and  the  mass  of  the  people 


66  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

entertain  slight  regard  for  political  economy, 
whose  professors  refuse  even  to  entertain 
consideration  of  the  difference  between  ser- 
vices and  commodities  in  exchange,  and 
whose  representatives  in  legislation  have  op- 
posed ahnost  every  limitation  upon  the  con- 
tract for  labor  as  unnecessary  and  mischiev- 
ous ?"*' 

Pohtical  economy  needs  new  life,  a  warmer 
blood,  and  a  more  thorough  appreciation  of 
the  sinews  of  production ;  and,  when  this 
appreciation  comes  to  it,  or  is  forced  upon 
it,  the  science  will  become  a  moral  philosophy 
as  well,  and  many  of  the  dark  places  in  the 
life  of  labor  will  be  made  bright  and  lumi- 
nous with  the  light  of  prosperity. 

The  experience  of  England  since  the  first 
years  of  the  last  century,  when  disorder  in 
the  sphere  of  labor  showed  itself  by  un- 
mistakable signs,  furnishes  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  absence  of  the  principles  I  am 
contending  for.  Orthodox  political  economy 
portrayed  all  the  advantages  of  the  division 
of   labor,  the  results  of   which  are  of   the 

»  F.  A.  Walker,  Sunday  Afternoon,  May,  1879. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  67 

greatest  importance  to  mankind ;  but,  like 
all  great  steps  in  advance,  it  carried  certain 
evils  with  it,  which  could  not  have  existed  if 
carried  on  in  accord  with  high  moral  con- 
siderations. 

The  great  proprietors  of  England  did  not 
take  into  account  the  advantages  the  laborers 
once  secured  to  themselves  by  combining 
domestic  industries  with  their  work  in  the 
manufactories.  They,  being  exclusively  pre- 
occupied by  the  technical  details  of  pro- 
duction, forgot  the  duties  which  good  morals 
woidd  have  imposed,  but  which  pohtical 
economy  failed  to  teach.  The  proprietors 
unscrupulously  drew  the  workmen  from  all 
rural  employments  by  offers  of  tempting 
wages ;  and,  without  giving  them  any  guar- 
anties of  security,  and  without  giving  the 
new  impetus  a  moral  direction,  they  aggre- 
gated them  in  towns,  and  caused  the  evil  of 
the  excess  of  manufacturing  labor  from 
which  the  old  country  is  suffering  to-day  far 
more  acutely  than  has  America  at  any  period 
of  her  history. 

The   English   people,    stimulated   by  the 


68  S03IE  ETHICAL  PHASES 

doctrines  of  a  false  political  economy,  placed 
too  high  an  estimate  upon  the  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  the  accumulation  of 
wealth,  and  at  the  same  time  gave  them- 
selves little  inquietude  in  regard  to  the  in- 
conveniences and  evils  resulting  from  the 
sudden  crowding  of  populations,  subject  to 
uneasiness,  exposed  to  industrial  instability, 
and  impelled  thereby  to  feehngs  of  oppo- 
sition irreconcilable  with  all  social  order. 
They  did  not  perceive,  nor  did  their  econo- 
mists teach,  as  they  will  in  the  future,  that, 
by  a  continuance  of  evils  resulting  from  the 
extension  of  a  vicious  system  involving  the 
inviolability  of  contracts  between  employer 
and  employe,  wealth  must,  sooner  or  later, 
cease  to  be  a  power,  and  the  existence  of 
the  most  solid  industrial  State  history  pre- 
sents to  us  be  compromised. "^  The  seeming 
evils  of  this  division  of  labor  have  been 
propagated  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  by 
many  writers,  who,  apparently  ignorant  of 
the  truths  history  teaches  as  to  the  usages 
of  prosperous  places  of  labor,  have  persisted 

*  Cf .  Organization  of  Labor,  Le  Play. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  69 

in  a  systematic  distinction  between  economic 
order  and  moral  order.  They  have  paid 
no  regard  to  the  reciprocal  duties  imposed 
by  moral  order  upon  employers  and  upon 
workmen.  For  example,  they  have  assimi- 
lated the  social  laws,  fixing  the  wages  of 
workmen  to  the  economic  laws  which  resfu- 
late  the  prices  of  goods  and  products ;  and 
by  this  erroneous  teaching  they  have  intro- 
duced a  germ  of  disorganization  into  the 
sphere  of  labor,  and  led  proprietors  every- 
where in  too  large  a  degree  to  hold  them- 
selves no  longer  bound  by  conscience  to 
regard  the  salutary  obhgations  imposed  by 
moral  order.* 

Later  writers  will  correct,  and  are  correct- 
ing, these  false  doctrines,  but  slowly,  how- 
ever. 

In  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  work,  The  Data 
of  Ethics,  we  are  informed  that  "ethics 
comprehends  the  laws  of  right  Hving;  and 
that,  beyond  the  conduct  commonly  ap- 
proved or  reprobated  as  right  or  wrong,  it 
includes  all  conduct  which  furthers  or  hin- 

*  Organization  of  Labor,  Le  Play. 


70  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

ders^  in  direct  or  indirect  ways,  the  welfare 
of  self  or  others ;  that  justice,  which  formu- 
lates the  range  of  conduct,  and  limitations 
to  conduct  hence  arising,  is  at  once  the  most 
important  division  of  ethics ;  that  it  has  to 
define  the  equitable  relations  among  individ- 
uals who  limit  one  another's  spheres  of  ac- 
tion by  co-existing,  and  who  achieve  their 
ends  by  co-operation ;  and  that,  beyond  jus- 
tice between  man  and  man,  justice  between 
each  man  and  the  aggregate  of  men  has  to 
be  dealt  with  by  it." 

These  are  sound  propositions,  taken  by 
themselves,  no  moral  philosopher  can  for  a 
moment  reject,  nor  should  they  be  rejected 
by  economists;  for  a  moment's  reflection 
upon  their  bearing  shows  conclusively  that 
material  prosperity  is  best  subserved  by  their 
incorporation  as  chapters  in  the  laws  of 
trade,  commerce,  and  production. 

Are  the  principles  I  have  endeavored 
to  apply  as  belonging  to  the  relations  of 
political  economy  to  the  labor  question 
the  outgrowth  of  mere  theory,  or  are 
they   born    of   actual    experiences,   and   do 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  71 

history  and  investigation  teach  their  practi- 
cability ? 

History  is  bright  with  illustrations  of  the 
truth  of  the  propositions  laid  down, —  even 
history  back  of  the  century  of  mechanical 
progress.  The  story  of  feudal  wrongs  is 
reheved  by  the  grand  life  of  Saint  Louis, 
who,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  taught  les- 
sons of  moral  obhgations  which  should  exist 
between  the  lords  and  their  followers  the 
employers  of  to-day  might  well  imitate. 

Forcible  illustrations  of  prosperity  result- 
ing from  moral  influence  and  a  pubHc  virtue 
could  be  drawn  from  the  times  of  Louis 
XIII.  (1610-43),  while  the  decHne  of  mate- 
rial prosperity  as  the  practical  resultant  of 
immorality  and  profligacy  became  marked 
under  Louis  XIV.  and  Louis  XV.  (1661  and 
after).  Later  periods  give  frequent  proof  of 
the  positions  taken  ;  but  I  need  not  accimiu- 
late  citations.  I  cannot,  however,  close 
without  caUing  attention  to  the  great  prog- 
ress which  has  taken  place,  and  to  some  of 
the  experiments  which  have  been  made  in 
this  direction.     One  of  the  most  prominent 


72  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

experiments  in  the  Old  World  was  carried 
out  under  the  direction  of  Robert  Owen  at 
New  Lanark  before  he  became  imbued  with 
sociaHsm.  At  the  period  of  his  Lanark 
experience  (1819)  Owen  gained  respect  and 
renown  in  distant  lands,  was  sought  by  the 
great,  was  consulted  by  governments,  and 
counted  among  his  patrons  princes  of  the 
blood  in  England  and  more  than  one 
crowned  head  in  Europe.  The  main  cause 
of  Owen's  success  began  with  the  practical 
improvement  of  the  working  people  under 
his  superintendence  as  manager,  and  after- 
wards as  owner,  of  the  cotton-mills  in  New 
Lanark.  He  found  himself  surrounded  by 
squalor  and  poverty,  intemperance  and 
crime,  so  common  among  the  operatives  of 
that  day,  and  not  quite  unknown  in  our 
own.  He  determined  to  change  the  whole 
condition  of  affairs.  He  erected  healthy 
dweUings  with  adjacent  gardens,  and  let 
them  at  cost  price  to  the  people.  He  built 
stores  where  goods  of  proper  quahty  might 
be  purchased  at  wholesale  prices,  and  thus 
removed  the  truck  system.     To  avoid  the 


i 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  73 

enormous  waste  of  separate  cooking,  he  pro- 
vided dining-halls,  where  wholesome  food 
might  be  obtained  at  reasonable  prices.  He 
estabhshed  the  first  infant  school  in  Great 
Britain.  He  excluded  all  under  ten  from  the 
workshops,  and  made  the  physical  and  moral 
training  of  the  young  his  special  care.  He 
adopted  measures  to  put  down  drunkenness, 
and  to  encourage  the  savings  of  the  people. 
The  employes  became  attached  to  their  em- 
ployer, took  a  personal  interest  in  the  success 
of  the  business,  labored  ably  and  conscien- 
tiously, and  so  made  the  mills  of  New 
Lanark,  in  Scotland,  a  great  financial  suc- 
cess, as  did  our  own  Lowell  those  on  the 
Merrimack  a  few  years  later.  Mr.  Griscom, 
an  American  traveller,  visited  Owen's  mills 
in  1819,  and  concludes  a  report  upon  them 
as  follows :  "  There  is  not,  I  apprehend,  to 
be  found  in  any  part  of  the  world  a  manu- 
facturing village  in  which  so  much  order, 
good  government,  tranquillity,  and  rational 
happiness  prevail.  It  affords  an  eminent 
and  instructive  example  of  the  good  that 
may  be  effected  by  well-directed  efforts  to 


74  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

promote  the  real  comfort,  and,  I  may  add, 
the  morality  of  the  laboring  classes." 

"Thus  one  of  these  romantic  valleys  of 
the  Clyde,  which  have  been  invested  with 
the  charm  of  poetry  by  Sir  Walter  Scott, 
had  also  been  rendered  the  scene  of  ^an 
earthly  paradise,'  from  a  social  point  of 
view,  by  Robert  Owen.  Kings  and  emper- 
ors came  to  visit  the  model  settlement,  and 
returned  with  the  conviction  that  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  masses  depends  on  the  ready 
earnestness  and  seK-denying  sympathy  of 
those  who  try  to  improve  them."  * 

Samuel  Laing,  an  eminent  traveller  and 
social  economist,  writing  in  1842  of  the  evils 
of  the  factory  system  of  Great  Britain,  and 
quoting  Chevalier,  the  French  economist, 
who  wrote  from  personal  inspection,  says : 
"  Fortunately  there  is  evidence  to  show  that 
these  are  not  necessary  evils,  and  that,  if 
a  due  regard  be  paid  by  those  concerned  to 
moral  obHgations,  the  factory  system  may 
be  made  to  work  well.  The  instance  of  the 
American  factories  at  Lowell,  in  the  State  of 

*  Kaufmann. 


OF  TUE  LABOR  QUESTION  75 

Massachusetts,  is  decisive  on  this  point." 
And,  after  describing  the  Lowell  system,  he 
asks,  "  Why  is  it  not  universal  ?  Because," 
he  answers,  "  certain  moral  elements  of  the 
American  system  are  wanting  in  the  Eng- 
lish. .  .  .  Instead  of  leaving  things  to  shift 
for  themselves,  public  opinion  and  a  sense 
of  duty  have  made  the  employers  of  labor 
[at  Lowell]  responsible  for  the  moral  super- 
intendence of  those  belonging  to  their  estab- 
hshments."  These  conditions,  he  further 
remarks,  "  should  make  us  pause  before  we 
set  down  the  Americans  as  a  nation  of  in- 
veterate dollar-hunters.  In  no  country  have 
the  claims  of  morality  and  himianity  been  so 
remorselessly  sacrificed  to  the  right  of  prop- 
erty as  in  England."  ^  And  he  might  have 
added,  in  no  country  has  there  been  such 
bhnd  following  of  a  false  notion  which  ex- 
cludes moral  considerations  from  the  science 
of  political  economy. 

The  experience  of  the  Briggs  Brothers  at 
their  colliery  in  England,  of  the  Cheney 
Brothers  at  South  Manchester,  Conn.,  of  the 

*Laing's  Notes  of  a  Traveller,  pp,  81,  82. 


76  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

Fairbanks  Company  in  Vermont,  of  hun- 
dreds of  others  who  have  recognized  the 
great  fact  of  the  Decalogue,  testifies  to  the 
soundness  of  the  doctrines  which  will  be 
taught  by  the  economists  of  the  future. 
When  they  are  taught,  and  pohtical  econ- 
omy is  reunited  with  moral  philosophy  (from 
which  it  was  divorced  while  a  bride),  we 
shall  find  the  heartiest  support  given  to  the 
science  by  the  producers  of  society  in  what- 
ever walk  their  lives  may  fall.  Periods  of 
depression,  which  formerly,  in  ages  past, 
used  to  alternate  with  periods  of  prosperity 
on  long  sweeps,  compassing  a  century,  have 
gradually  been  reduced  in  the  swing  to 
shorter  and  shorter  durations,  so  that  now 
the  oscillations  are  distinguished  by  half- 
decades  of  time.  The  growth  of  industrial 
ethics  will  continue  to  reduce  the  length  of 
these  periods,  till  we  compass  them  within 
the  year.  This  is  one  of  the  tangible  steps 
in  the  progress  of  civihzation ;  and  no 
greater  can  be  recorded,  or  one  having  more 
practical  bearing  upon  the  weKare  and  hap- 
piness  of  the  people. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  77 

I  have  not  been  ambitious  to  promulgate 
these  principles,  or  theories,  with  the  idea 
they  were  to  cure  existing  difficulties,  or 
prevent  the  recurrence  of  past  evils,  but 
simply  to  make  a  new  apphcation  to  the 
wants  of  the  future  industrial  world  of  those 
principles  which  alone  have  been  successful 
imder  hke  circumstances  in  the  past;  and 
they  are  in  accord  with  the  Decalogue,  the 
surest  platform  for  the  labor  question  — 
which  involves  capitalists  and  laborers  — 
to  rest  upon,  and  by  which  to  insure  success. 


Ill 

THE  FACTOKY  AS  AN  ELEMENT 
IN  CIVILIZATION. 


m 

THE  FACTORY  AS  AN  ELEMENT  IN 
CIVILIZATION. 

A  SUPERFICIAL  study  of  the  factory  in 
almost  any  community  leads  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  has  a  deteriorating  influence 
upon  the  operative  as  well  as  upon  the  pop- 
ulation surrounding  it,  but  this  is  only  the 
superficial  view.  Managers  of  factories  are 
perfectly  familiar  with  the  deeper,  underly- 
ing ethical  aspects  of  the  question.  Thirty 
years  ago,  before  I  began  the  investigation 
of  social  and  economic  conditions,  I  very 
naturally  adopted  the  superficial  view ;  but 
as  my  investigations  proceeded,  and  as  I 
studied  the  real  relation  of  the  factory  to 
common,  e very-day  life,  I  was  obliged  to 
change  my  attitude.  It  is  only  natural  that 
this  superficial  view  should  obtain  in  the 
popular  mind.  Almost  every  writer,  cer- 
tainly with  rare  exceptions,  adopts  the  view 

81 


82  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

that  the  factory  has  been  beneficial  in  a 
purely  economic  sense.  Few  are  ready  to 
adopt  the  idea  that  the  factory  has  been  of 
itself  and  through  its  own  influence  an  ele- 
ment in  civilization  or  an  element  in  lifting 
up  the  social  life  of  any  of  the  people. 

The  latter  view  results  from  a  superficial 
study,  as  I  have  said,  and  also  from  an  in- 
verted vision.  The  glamour  which  sur- 
rounded the  factory  in  the  early  days  of  its 
estabHshment  in  this  country  has  led  to  very 
many  erroneous  conclusions.  Some  of  us 
remember,  and  all  of  us  have  heard  of,  the 
Lowell  factory  girls,  and  the  intellectual 
standard  which  they  attained.  Then,  look- 
ing to  the  present  textile  factory  operatives 
in  different  parts  of  the  country,  the  com- 
parison becomes  very  sharp  and  the  con- 
clusion apparently  decisive.  In  making  this 
comparison,  however,  the  real  conditions  of 
the  factory  in  the  early  days  at  Lowell, 
when  the  factory  girls  edited  their  own  lit- 
erary magazine,  which  achieved  high  rank 
everywhere,  are  not  clearly  recognized.  The 
then  existing  prejudice   of  England  against 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  83 

the  factory  was  well  known  here ;  and  man- 
agers who  built  their  factories  in  this  coun- 
try at  that  time  were  obliged,  therefore,  to 
offer  attractive  wages  as  well  as  attractive 
environment,  and  by  such  offers  they  drew 
into  Eastern  factories  the  dauofhters  of  the 
New  England  farmers  and  a  high  grade  of 
English  girls. 

In  speaking  and  writing  of  this  period  I 
have  often  called  attention  to  my  own  recol- 
lections, and  such  recollections  are  just  those 
which  have  led  to  false  conclusions.  My 
first  teacher  was  a  weaver  in  the  factories  at 
Lowell,  Biddeford,  and  Salem.  She  was  a 
writer  on  the  Lowell  Offering,  the  factory 
girls'  publication,  and  a  contemporary  of 
Lucy  Larcom  and  the  other  noble  women 
who  worked  in  the  cotton-mills  of  those 
days. 

A  change  came  over  the  industrial  con- 
dition, however,  and  the  American  and 
EngHsh  girls  were  forced  out  of  the  factory 
through  economic  influences ;  but  they  were 
not  forced  downward  in  the  scale  of  life. 
They  were  crowded  out,  but  up  into  higher 


84  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

callings.  They  became  the  wives  of  fore- 
men and  superintendents,  teachers  in  the 
common  schools,  clerks  in  stores  and  count- 
ing-rooms ;  and  they  lost  nothing  whatever 
by  their  life  and  services  in  the  factory. 
The  lower  grade  of  operatives  that  succeeded 
them  brought  the  sharp  comparison  which 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  factory  is 
degrading.  The  women  who  came  in  then 
were  very  largely  Irish  girls,  fresh  and  raw 
immigrants,  from  the  poorer  and  less  devel- 
oped localities  of  Ireland.  Taking  the  places 
of  the  English  and  American  girls  in  the 
Eastern  factories,  they  soon  began  to  im- 
prove their  condition ;  and  the  result  was 
that  they  in  turn  were  crowded  out  by  an- 
other nationality.  But  the  Irish  girl  did 
not  retrograde.  She  progressed,  as  had  her 
predecessors,  and  enlisted  in  higher  occupa- 
tions. The  daughters  of  the  original  Irish 
factory  operatives  and  scrub-women  who 
came  to  this  country  were  no  longer  factory 
operatives  and  scrub-women.  They  were  to 
be  foimd  standing  behind  the  counters  of 
our  great  retail  shops,  well  dressed,  educated 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  85 

in  our  schools,  bright,  active,  and  industri- 
ous, and  with  a  moral  character  equal  to  that 
of  their  predecessors. 

The  war  period  created  the  necessity  of 
an  increased  number  of  factory  operatives, 
and  brought  into  our  mills  a  great  body  of 
French-Canadian  women.  The  opposition 
in  the  New  England  States  to  the  presence 
of  the  French-Canadians  was  as  great  as  it 
ever  had  been  against  the  coming  of  the 
Irish.  The  opposition  to  the  Irish  had 
ceased :  it  was  transferred  to  the  French- 
Canadians  ;  but  I  venture  to  say  that  there 
never  has  been  a  nationality  coming  into 
the  United  States  that  has  shown  such  great 
progress  in  the  same  period  of  time  as  have 
the  French-Canadians.  They  are  now  grad- 
uating from  the  factory,  the  Swedes,  the 
Greeks,  and  others  coming  in ;  and  the  fac- 
tory is  performing  the  same  civilizing  opera- 
tion for  the  new  quotas  that  it  has  always 
performed  for  the  others.  It  is  reaching 
down  and  down  to  the  lower  strata  of  soci- 
ety, and  lifting  them  up  to  a  higher  standard 
of  Hving. 


86  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

Now  we  are  in  the  presence  of  another 
experiment,  or  experience,  rather,  which 
teaches  the  soundness  of  the  view  I  am  try- 
ing to  convey,  and  that  experience  is  in  the 
South.  When  the  American  girls  left  the 
factories  of  New  England,  foreigners  took 
their  places.  The  establishment  of  the 
textile  factory  in  the  South  led  to  the  em- 
ployment of  a  body  of  native  people  —  those 
born  and  bred  in  the  South,  popularly  known 
as  the  poor  whites  —  who  up  to  the  time  of 
the  erection  of  cotton-factories  had  lived  a 
precarious  existence,  and  always  in  antag- 
onism to  the  colored  people,  looking  upon 
work  as  rather  degrading  than  otherwise, 
because  of  the  peculiar  institution  of  the 
South,  and  on  the  whole  not  constituting 
a  very  desirable  element  in  Southern  popu- 
lation. To-day  these  people  are  furnishing 
the  textile  factories  of  the  Southern  States 
with  a  class  of  operatives  not  surpassed  in 
any  part  of  the  country.  This  is  the  testi- 
mony of  the  late  Mr.  Dingley  in  a  speech 
in  the  House  of  Representatives.  It  is  the 
testimony    of    English    manufacturers    who 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  87 

have  carefully  studied  the  conditions  in  the 
South ;  and  the  testimony  from  all  sources 
is  to  the  effect  that  the  poor  whites  of  the 
South  are  entering  the  cotton-mills  as  an 
opportunity  which  had  never  before  been 
open  to  them.  They  are  becoming  indus- 
trious and  saving  in  their  habits ;  and,  com- 
ing to  the  factory  towns,  they  bring  their 
families,  and  they  in  turn  are  brought  into 
an  environment  entirely  different  from  that 
under  which  they  were  reared.  They  are 
now  able  to  educate  their  children, —  to 
bring  them  up  in  a  way  which  was  never 
possible  to  them  before ;  and  thus  the  poor 
whites  of  the  South  are  gradually,  and  with 
more  or  less  rapidity,  becoming  not  only  a 
desirable,  but  a  valuable,  element  in  South- 
ern population,  on  which  the  integrity  and 
prosperity  of  a  great  industry  largely  depend. 
The  experience  in  the  South  is  simply  that 
of  other  locaHties,  whether  in  this  country  or 
in  England.  The  factory  means  education, 
enhghtenment,  and  an  intellectual  develop- 
ment utterly  impossible  without  it, —  I  mean 
to  a  class  of  people  who  could  not  reach 


88  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

these  things  in  any  other  way.  It  is  an  ele- 
ment in  social  life.  By  its  educational  influ- 
ences it  is  constantly  lifting  the  people  from 
a  lower  to  a  higher  grade. 

When  the  textile  factory  was  originally 
established  in  England,  it  took  into  its  em- 
ployment the  children  of  agricultural  dis- 
tricts,—  paupers,  charity  boys  and  girls. 
Much  was  said  about  the  degradation  of  the 
factory  children.  Parliamentary  investiga- 
tions and  reports  bewailed  the  conditions 
found,  but  it  was  forgotten  in  every  instance 
that  the  factory  really  lifted  these  children 
out  of  a  condition  far  worse  than  that  in 
which  the  parliamentary  committee  found 
them  when  employed  in  the  factories.  We 
have  had  no  such  conditions  to  contend 
with  in  this  country,  but  we  have  this  super- 
ficial idea  with  which  to  contend.  The  no- 
tion that  the  factory  creates  ignorance,  vice, 
and  low  tendencies  is  absolutely  false.  It 
does  bring  together  a  large  body  of  compar- 
atively ignorant  persons.  It  congregates 
these  persons  into  one  community,  and 
hence  the  results  of  ignorance  and  of  lower 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  89 

standards  of  life  become  clearly  apparent 
because  of  the  concentration.  Before  the 
concentration  the  ignorance  existed  precisely 
the  same,  but  was  diffused,  and  hence  not 
apparent. 

These  contentions  can  be  fully  sustained 
by  a  brief  historical  discussion  of  the  fac- 
tory system  of  labor,  in  which  the  ethical 
elements  of  its  inception  and  growth  consti- 
tute an  interesting  study. 

One  of  the  most  attractive  departments  of 
human  knowledge  is  what  may  be  denomi- 
nated the  evolution  of  industrial  forces. 
The  progress  of  the  systems  of  labor  gives 
to  science  a  field  for  the  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  doctrines  of  evolution,  entirely 
relieved  from  the  abstract  philosophical  dis- 
tinctions which,  in  greater  or  less  degree, 
surround  those  doctrines  when  applied  to 
growth  in  other  departments. 

The  philosophy  of  history  will  take  into 
account  the  vital  elements  of  industrial 
forces  in  all  their  grand  development  as 
important  factors  in  shaping  civilization 
itself,  as  well  as  in  shaping  the  commercial 


90  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

policy  of  nations  in  their  relations  to  each 
other. 

It  is  to  be  regretted,  however,  that  his- 
tory, as  it  is  generally  constructed,  takes  but 
little  account  of  such  forces ;  and  he  who 
would  understand  the  intimate  connections 
of  apparently  diverse  interests  in  their  in- 
fluence upon  the  establishment  of  industrial 
systems  must  do  so  upon  the  basis  of  his 
own  studies,  expecting  and  receiving  but 
little  aid  from  the  historians. 

The  influences  which  led  to  the  institu- 
tion of  the  factory  system  are  as  diverse  in 
their  nature,  almost,  as  the  ramifications  of 
the  system  itself.  These  influences,  how- 
ever, are  not  shrouded  in  any  mystery,  but 
are  clearly  defined;  and  their  power,  not 
only  abstractly,  but  concretely,  is  fully  recog- 
nizable in  the  origin  of  the  system. 

The  factory  system  is  of  recent  origin, 
and  is  entirely  the  creation  of  influences  ex- 
isting or  coming  into  existence  during  the 
last  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  These 
influences  were  both  direct  and  subtle  in 
their   character,  but    all-important  in  their 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  91 

place  and  in  their  combination.  As  a  great 
fact,  the  system  originated  in  no  precon- 
ceived plan,  nor  did  it  spring  from  any 
spasmodic  exercise  of  human  wisdom.  On 
the  contrary,  "  it  was  formed  and  shaped  by 
the  irresistible  force  of  circumstances,  fortu- 
nately aided  and  guided  by  men  who  were 
able  to  profit  by  circumstances."  *  To  bor- 
row the  expression  of  Cooke  Taylor,  .  .  . 
"  Those  who  were  called  the  fathers  of  the 
system  were  not  such  demons  as  they  have 
sometimes  been  described,  nor  yet  were  they 
perfect  angels.  They  were  simply  men  of 
great  intelligence,  industry,  and  enterprise. 
They  have  bequeathed  the  system  to  this  age, 
with  the  imperfections  incident  to  every 
human  institution ;  and  the  task  of  harmon- 
izing their  innovation  with  existing  institu- 
tions, and  with  the  true  spii'it  of  righteous- 
ness, belongs  really  to  the  great  employers  of 
labor  rather  than  to  the  professed  teachers 
of  morality.  It  is  too  late  to  inquire  whether 
the  system  ought  or  ought  not  to  have  been 
established ;  for  established  it  is,  and  estab- 

*  Taylor's  Factory  System,  pp.  1-11. 


92  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

lished  it  will  remain  in  spite  of  all  the 
schemes  of  the  socialists  or  the  insane  pana- 
ceas of  quack  economists."  * 

In  its  origin  the  factory  system  found  its 
appHcation  in  the  textile  trades  of  England ; 
and  we  are  very  apt  now,  when  the  term  is 
used,  to  confine  it  in  our  minds  to  the  pro- 
duction of  cotton  and  woollen  goods,  al- 
though it  has  in  reality  embraced  nearly  all 
lines  of  the  products  of  machinery. 

A  factory  is  an  establishment  where  sev- 
eral workmen  are  collected  together  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  greater  and  cheaper 
conveniences  for  labor  than  they  could  pro- 
cure individually  at  their  homes,  for  pro- 
ducing results  by  their  combined  efforts 
which  they  could  not  accompHsh  separately, 
and  for  saving  the  loss  of  time  which  the 
carrying  of  an  article  from  place  to  place 
during  the  several  processes  necessary  to 
complete  its  manufacture  would  occasion. 

The  principle  of  a  factory  is  that  each 
laborer,  working  separately,  is  controlled  by 
some  associating  principle  which  directs  his 

*Cf.  Taylor's  Dedication  to  Factory  System. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  93 

producing  powers  to  effect  a  common  result, 
which  it  is  the  object  of  all  collectively  to 
attain. 

Factories  are,  therefore,  the  legitimate 
outgrowth  of  the  universal  tendency  to  asso- 
ciation which  is  inherent  in  our  nature,  and 
by  the  development  of  which  every  advance 
in  human  improvement  and  human  happi- 
ness has  been  gained. 

The  first  force  which  tended  to  create  this 
system  was  that  of  invention,  and  the  stimu- 
lus to  this  grew  out  of  the  difficulty  the 
weavers  experienced  in  obtaining  a  sufficient 
supply  of  yarn  to  keep  their  looms  in  opera- 
tion. 

Invention,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  had 
really  aggravated  the  difficulty  by  a  device 
for  facilitating  the  process  of  weaving.  I 
have  reference  to  the  fly  shuttle,  invented  in 
1738  by  John  Kay.  By  this  device  one 
man  alone  was  enabled  to  weave  the  widest 
cloth,  while  prior  to  Kay's  invention  two 
persons  were  requu-ed. 

One  can  readily  see  how  this  increased  the 
difficidty  of  obtaining  a  supply  of  yarn ;  for 


94  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

the  one-thread  wheel,  though  turning  from 
morning  till  night  in  thousands  of  cottages, 
could  not  keep  pace  either  with  the  weaver's 
shuttle  or  with  the  demand  of  the  merchant.* 

In  1738  the  very  first  gleams  of  the  gen- 
ius which  was  to  remove  the  difiiculties  were 
discovered,  and  wings  v/ere  given  to  a  manu- 
facture which  had  been  creeping  on  the 
earth.  An  elementary  mechanical  contriv- 
ance was  invented  whereby  a  single  pair  of 
hands  could  spin  twenty,  a  hundred,  or  even 
one  thousand  threads.  I  need  not  discuss 
the  details  of  the  various  inventions  which 
culminated  in  a  grand  constellation  of  me- 
chanical devices  as  perfect  and  as  wonderful 
as  any  class  of  inventions,  and  which  have 
influenced  the  world  in  a  deeper  sense  than 
any  other  save  printing. 

It  is  true  that,  when  this  admirable  series 
of  machines  was  made  known,  and  by  their 
means  yarns  were  produced  far  superior  in 
quality  to  any  before  spun  in  England,  as 
well  as  lower  in  price,  a  mighty  unpulse  was 
given  to  the  cotton  manufacture. 

*Baines's  History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture,  p.  117. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  95 

It  was  an  impulse,  however ;  and  the  in- 
ventions would  not  have  brought  their  full- 
est fruition  without  the  powerful  influences 
which  came  into  existence  through  events 
which  have  not  usually  been  considered  in 
this  connection,  but  which  are  as  legitimate 
in  considering  what  I  have  called  the  evolu- 
tion of  industrial  forces  as  the  inventions 
themselves,  which  simply  constitute  the  ini- 
tiatory outgrowth  of  such  evolution. 

While  the  processes  of  production  had  be- 
come in  England  more  efficient  through  the 
invention  of  spinning-machines,  whereby  the 
weavers  were  kept  busy  and  allowed  no  rest, 
it  was  only  where  a  stream  gave  force  to 
turn  a  mill-wheel  that  the  spinner  or  the 
wool-worker  could  establish  his  factory ; 
while,  if  this  difficulty  even  had  not  existed, 
the  inefficiency  of  distribution  would  have 
rendered  useless,  to  a  large  degree,  a  greatly 
augmented  production. 

Mr.  Green,  in  his  History  of  the  English 
People,  speaking  of  the  decade  beginning 
with  1760,  remarks  :  "  The  older  main  roads, 
which  had  lasted  fairly  through  the  Middle 


96  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

Ages,  had  broken  down  in  later  times  before 
the  growth  of  traffic  and  the  increase  of 
wagons  and  carriages.  The  new  lines  of 
trade  lay  often  along  mere  country  lanes 
which  had  never  been  more  than  horse- 
tracks,  and  to  drive  heavy  trains  through 
lanes  like  these  was  all  but  impossible. 
Much  of  the  woollen  trade,  therefore,  had  to 
be  carried  on  by  means  of  long  trains  of 
pack-horses.  ...  In  the  case  of  yet  heavier 
goods,  such  as  coal,  distribution  was  almost 
impracticable,  save  along  the  greater  rivers 
or  in  districts  accessible  from  the  sea."  But, 
at  the  time  when  Hargreaves  and  Arkwright 
were  struggling  to  make  their  inventions 
available,  the  enterprise  of  a  duke  and  the 
ingenuity  of  a  millwright  not  only  solved  the 
problem  of  distribution,  which  the  trade  of 
the  country  was  forcing  upon  England,  and 
which  improved  cotton  machinery  was  sure 
to  complicate,  but  they  paved  the  way,  by 
constructing  canals,  for  the  greatest  appHca- 
tion  of  the  steam-engine,  which  could  not 
have  played  its  part  in  estabhshing  the  fac- 
tory system  without  means    of  distributing 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  97 

coal ;  and  the  system  itself,  without  the  steam 
engine,  would  have  been  a  feeble  institution. "^ 

England  at  once  seized  on  the  discovery 
of  the  canal  as  the  means  by  which  to  free 
herself  from  the  bondage  in  which  she  had 
been  held.  "From  the  year  1767  a  net- 
work of  water-roads  was  flung  over  the 
country ;  and,  before  the  movement  had 
spent  its  force,  Great  Britain  alone  was  trav- 
ersed in  every  direction  by  three  thousand 
miles  of  navigable  canals." 

The  free  and  cheap  distribution  of  coal 
and  iron  at  once  became  an  important  fac- 
tor,—  in  fact,  the  chief  material  element  in 
the  development  of  the  factory  system ;  and 
now  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  civili- 
zation a  new  motive  power  became  indispen- 
sable to  growth.  For  "  what  was  needed  to 
turn  England  into  a  manufacturing  country 
was  some  means  of  transforming  the  force  " 
of  the  sun  "  stored  up  in  coal  into  a  labor 
force ;  and  it  was  this  transformation  which 
was  brought  about  through  the  agency  of 
steam."  t 

*  Green,  vol.  i.  p.  279.  t  Green. 


98  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

The  location  of  mills  upon  streams  of 
water  was  no  longer  a  physical  necessity. 
They  could  be  built  and  run  near  large 
towns,  where  they  could  be  fed  from  the 
crowded  population.  The  influence  of  this 
change  of  location  has  been  the  cause  of 
most  of  the  so-called  factory  evils. 

The  power-loom  closed  the  catalogue  of 
machines  essential  for  the  inauguration  of 
the  era  of  mechanical  supremacy.  What  in- 
ventions will  come  during  the  continuance 
of  that  era  cannot  be  predicted,  for  we  are 
still  at  the  beginning  of  the  age  of  in- 
vention. The  wonderful  results  of  its  first 
twenty  years  of  life  are  sufficient  to  indicate 
something  of  the  future. 

When  the  period  of  which  I  have  spoken, 
the  score  of  years  from  1765  to  1785,  had 
closed,  England  found  herself  possessed  of 
powers  which  needed  only  the  support  of 
the  silent  forces  of  the  nation  to  carry  her 
to  the  very  highest  point  in  industrial  su- 
premacy. 

Inventions  were  the  material  forces,  pow- 
erful, indeed,  as  agents  in  building  the  fac- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  99 

tory  system.  What  were  the  spmtual  forces, 
so  to  speak?  The  inner,  subtle,  but  also 
powerful  agencies  at  work  to  render  the  ma- 
terial forces  successful  ?  A  body  without  a 
spirit  is  but  dead  matter.  This  is  certainly 
true,  in  one  sense,  of  all  the  mechanical 
bodies  which  have  served  as  expressions  of 
mind.  A  machine  is  really  embodied  action. 
A  grand  combination  of  inventions  must  em- 
body not  only  all  the  actions  represented, 
but  the  spii'it  of  the  age ;  for  without  this 
they  are  powerless. 

While  the  inventions  of  which  I  have 
spoken  were  being  perfected,  Adam  Smith 
was  working  out  his  memorable  Inquiry  into 
the  Causes  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations, 
When  he  was  lecturing  with  applause,  in 
Glasgow,  from  the  chair  of  Moral  Philoso- 
phy, James  Watt  was  selling  mathematical 
instrimients  in  an  obscure  shop  within  the 
precincts  of  the  same  university,  and  was 
working  out  his  inquiry  into  the  practicable 
methods  of  applying  steam. 

It  may  seem  as  if  no  two  departments  of 
human  thought  were  more  widely  separated 


100  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

than  those  in  which  these  two  men  were  en- 
gaged. One  was  a  region  purely  mental, 
the  other  purely  physical.  The  one  had 
reference  to  the  laws  of  mind,  the  other  to 
the  laws  of  matter;  and  yet  the  work  of 
Adam  Smith  and  that  of  James  Watt  were 
inseparably  connected,  not  only  as  involving 
analogous  methods  of  investigation,  but  as 
showing  in  their  result  the  blending  and  co- 
operation of  mental  and  material  laws.*" 

Dr.  Smith  treated  of  the  philosophy  of 
trade,  and  by  his  philosophy  prepared  the 
English  mind  to  receive  for  England's  bene- 
fit the  commercial  results  not  only  of  her 
inventions,  but  of  her  losses  from  the  war 
with  her  colonies,  and  the  diversion  of  her 
slave-trade  capital. 

Adam  Smith  published  his  work  in  1776, 
and  during  the  seven  years  of  strife  with 
this  country  his  doctrines  had  taken  silent 
and  almost  unobserved  possession  of  the 
minds  of  the  thinking  men  of  England ;  so 
that  at  the  close  of  the  war  it  was  not  diffi- 
cult to  turn  the  thoughts  of  manufacturers 

*  Duke  of  Argyle,  Reign  of  Law,  p.  339. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  101 

and  merchants  to  the  industrial  possibilities 
of  Great  Britain. 

Guizot  remarked  that  "  England's  liberties 
are  owing  to  her  having  been  conquered  by 
the  Normans."  The  truth  of  this  statement 
is  easily  discernible  under  the  light  of  the 
philosophy  of  history.  It  is  also  true,  to  a 
great  extent,  that  England  owes  her  indus- 
trial supremacy  to  the  loss  of  her  American 
colonies. 

With  the  close  of  the  war,  the  industry 
of  England  was  exerted  to  its  fullest  power 
in  the  task  of  supplying  the  world  with  cot- 
ton goods.  She  flooded  America  with  cheap 
goods,  and  demoralized  our  merchants  and 
our  people,  and  actually  drove  them  into  a 
fever  for  foreign  goods.  The  capital  of 
England,  released  by  the  war,  was  free  to 
engage  in  industrial  and  commercial  enter- 
prises ;  and  well  did  the  business  brains  of 
the  country  apply  the  doctrines  of  the  Glas- 
gow economist.  But  a  stranger  power  than 
war,  or  the  pauperism  of  agricultural  dis- 
tricts, from  which  the  factories  were  largely 
supplied  with  cheap  labor,  was  added  to  the 


102  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

combination  of  forces  essential  to  the  estab- 
lisment  of  a  new  industrial  order.  Disgrace- 
ful and  tedious  as  had  been  the  contest  with 
the  colonies,  the  years  devoted  to  it  were 
years  of  as  grand  and  mighty  a  revolution 
for  the  mother  as  for  the  child. '^  This  rev- 
olution took  the  shape  of  a  great  moral  and 
rehgious  power,  which  seemed  to  roll  with- 
out obstacle  over  the  land,  changing  the 
politics  of  the  country  and  changing  the 
directions  of  the  employment  of  active  cap- 
ital. 

The  religious  revival  work  of  the  Wesley s 
brought  a  nobler  result  than  mere  rehgious 
enthusiasm.  A  philanthropic  impulse  grew 
out  of  the  Wesleyan  impulse.  The  writings 
and  the  personal  example  of  Hannah  More 
drew  the  sympathy  of  England  to  the  pov- 
erty and  crime  of  the  agricultural  laborer. 
A  passionate  impulse  of  human  sympathy 
with  the  wronged  and  the  oppressed  grew 
with  amazing  strength,  and  under  its  influ- 
ence Clarkson  and  Wilberforce  were  sus- 
tained in  their  crusade  against  the  iniquity 

*  Green. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  103 

of  the  slave  trade.  This  grand  enthusiasm 
carried  Howard  through  the  moral  chivalry 
of  his  labors ;  so  each  and  all  who  sought 
the  elevation  of  the  oppressed  thus  gave  a 
shot  at  the  slave  trade  either  directly  or  in- 
directly, for  all  helped  to  create  the  public 
sentiment  which  insisted  upon  its  abolition. 
"HaK  the  wealth  of  Liverpool  was  drawn 
from  the  traffic  of  its  merchants  in  human 
flesh."  * 

As  the  spirit  of  humanity  told  upon  the 
people,  apathy  suddenly  disappeared.  Phi- 
lanthropy allied  itself  with  the  Wesleyan 
movement  in  an  attack  on  the  slave  trade. 
The  first  assaults  were  repulsed  by  the  oppo- 
sition of  the  merchants,  who  argued  that  the 
aboHtion  of  the  trade  meant  their  ruin.  But 
the  movement  gathered  strength  from  year 
to  year,  and  the  traffic  was  suppressed ;  and 
the  vast  amount  of  capital  employed  in  it 
was  forced  into  new  channels,  and  naturally 
into  commercial  and  industrial  entei-prises. 

The  philosophy  of  these  events  in  their 
relation  to  the  establishment  of  the  factory 

*  Green. 


104  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

system  cannot  be  denied.  To  be  sure,  inven- 
tion alone  would  in  time  have  succeeded  in 
instituting  the  new  system,  but  not  for  gen- 
erations upon  an  enduring  basis. 

It  required  all  the  forces  I  have  con- 
sidered —  physical,  mental,  philosophical, 
commercial,  and  philanthropical,  working  in 
separate  yet  convergent  lines  —  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  an  entirely  new  system  of  in- 
dustry ;  and  these  forces  coming  into  exist- 
ence during  the  twenty  years  following  the 
success  of  the  efforts  of  Hargreaves  and 
Arkwright,  and  extending  in  their  wonder- 
ful influences  over  the  earth  wherever  civili- 
zation has  a  foothold,  constitutes  that  period 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  since  the  Chris- 
tian era.  In  fact,  no  generation  since  then 
has  so  completely  stamped  itself  upon  the 
affairs  of  the  world. 

England  at  the  close  of  the  Eevolution 
held,  as  she  supposed,  the  key  to  the  indus- 
trial world  in  cotton  manufactures.  Certainly, 
she  held  the  machinery  without  which  such 
manufactures  could  not  be  carried  on  in 
competition  with  her  own  mills. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  105 

The  planting  of  the  mechanic  arts  in  this 
country  became  a  necessity  during  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  ;  and  afterwards  the  spirit 
of  American  enterprise  demanded  that  New 
England,  at  least,  with  her  barren  soil,  should 
improve  the  privileges  she  did  possess,  which 
were  water-power  and  skill. 

Of  course,  most  industries  whose  products 
were  called  for  by  the  necessities  of  the 
war  were  greatly  stimulated ;  but  with  peace 
came  reaction,  and  the  flooding  of  our  mar- 
kets with  foreign  goods.  A  new  patriotism, 
which  sought  industrial  as  well  as  political 
independence  of  the  mother  country,  re- 
sulted in  the  new  constitution,  the  second 
act  under  which  was  passed  July  4,  1789, 
with  this  preamble :  "  Whereas  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  support  of  the  government,  for 
the  discharge  of  the  debts  of  the  United 
States,  and  for  the  encouragement  and  the 
protection  of  manifactures  that  duties  be 
laid  on  goods,  wares,  and  merchandises  im- 
ported, be  it  enacted,"  etc. 

Patriotism  and  statute  law  thus  paved  the 
way  for  the  importation  of  the  factory  sys- 


106  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

tern  of  labor,  and  so  its  institution  here  as 
well  as  in  England  was  the  result  of  both 
moral  and  economic  forces.  These  forces, 
existing  at  the  time  of  the  coming  of  Samuel 
Slater,  the  father  of  American  manufactures, 
as  President  Jackson  designated  him,  made 
Slater's  work  a  success;  and  his  success 
firmly  estabhshed  the  factory  system  in  this 
country.  Slater  came  in  1789,  equipped 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  manufacture  of 
cotton-machinery  gained  as  an  apprentice  to 
Arkwright  himself.  He  constructed  the 
machinery  for  a  small  mill  in  Rhode  Island 
in  1790,  from  which  period  the  progress  in 
the  establishment  of  factory  manufactures 
was  uninterrupted  save  by  temporary  causes. 

From  the  textile  industries  the  system  has 
extended  to  almost  all  branches  of  produc- 
tion, till  a  large  proportion  of  all  manufac- 
tured articles  in  use  to-day  in  civilized  coun- 
tries are  factory-made ;  and  yet  one-half  the 
population  of  the  globe  is  still  clothed  with 
hand-made  fabrics. 

The  statistics  of  the  industries  of  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  are  the  sta- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  107 

tistics  of  industries  conducted  under  the 
system. 

In  France,  Germany,  and  Belgium  the 
system  predominates,  although  the  domestic 
system  of  labor  in  these  countries  has  con- 
tinued to  exist  to  considerable  extent. 

The  new  system,  which  has  found  its 
most  rapid  extension  in  the  United  States, 
has  enabled  the  manufacturers  of  this  coun- 
try, with  our  wonderful  stores  of  raw  ma- 
terials at  hand,  to  become  the  successful 
rivals  in  the  mechanic  arts  of  any  country 
that  desires  to  compete  with  them. 

It  has  changed  the  conditions  of  masses 
of  people.  It  has  become  an  active  element 
in  the  processes  of  civilization,  and  has 
changed  the  character  of  legislation  and 
of  national  policy  everywhere. 

Is  this  great,  powerful,  and  growing  sys- 
tem a  power  for  good  or  for  evil  ?  Does  it 
mean  the  elevation  of  the  race  or  its  retro- 
gression ? 

When  we  speak  of  civilization,  we  have  in 
mind  the  progi*ess  of  society  toward  a  more 
perfect  state,  as  indicated  by  the  growth  of 


108  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

a  long  period  of  time.  We  do  not  simply 
contemplate  specific  reforms  or  especial  evils, 
but  the  trend  of  all  social  influences. 

When  we  speak  of  the  factory  system,  we 
are  apt  to  let  our  thoughts  dwell  upon  the 
evils  that  we  know  or  imagine  belong  to  it. 
This  is  certainly  true  when  civilization  and 
the  factory  system  are  suggested  in  the  same 
sentence.  This  is  wrong,  for  we  should  con- 
template the  factory  system  in  its  general 
influence  upon  society,  and  especially  upon 
that  portion  of  society  most  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  factory. 

My  position  is  that  the  system  has  been 
and  is  a  most  potent  element  in  promoting 
civilization.  I  assmne,  of  course, —  and  the 
assumption  is  in  entire  harmony  with  my 
thoughts, —  that  the  civilization  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  will  be  better  than  that  of  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  sweating 
system,  and  the  popular  idea  is  that  the 
sweating  system  is  the  product  of  modern 
industrial  conditions.  The  fact  is  that  it  is 
a  remnant  of  the  old  industrial  system.     It 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  109 

is  the  old  hand  system  prior  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  factory,  and  has  been  projected 
into  our  tiaie.  Once  universal,  the  sweating 
system  is  now  limited  to  one  or  two  indus- 
tries, and  is  gradually  being  eliminated 
through  the  very  system  which  is  sometimes 
condemned.  Just  as  fast  as  the  sweat-shops 
are  developed  into  the  factory,  and  brought 
under  the  laws  which  relate  to  factory  regu- 
lation, just  so  rapidly  is  the  sweating  system 
being  eliminated.  The  only  cure  is  to  make 
of  the  sweat-shop  the  factory.  The  social 
life  of  sweaters  can  be  improved  only  by  lift- 
ing them  to  the  grade  of  factory  operatives. 
An  examination  into  the  conditions  exist- 
ing under  the  factory  system,  and  those  of 
the  domestic  or  individual  system  which  pre- 
ceded it,  fully  sustains  this  position. 

None  of  the  systems  of  labor  which  ex- 
isted prior  to  the  present,  or  factory  system, 
was  particularly  conducive  to  a  higher  civi- 
lization. Wages  have  been  paid  for  ser- 
vices rendered  since  the  wants  of  men  in- 
duced one  to  serve  another,  yet  the  wage 
system  is  of  recent  origin  as  a  system.     It 


110  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

arose  out  of  the  feudal  system  of  labor,  and 
was  the  first  fruits  of  the  efforts  of  men  to 
free  themselves  from  villemage.  The  origin 
of  the  wage  system  cannot  be  given  a  birth- 
day as  can  the  factory  system.  It  is  true, 
however,  that  the  wage  system  rendered  the 
factory  system  possible,  and  they  have  since 
grown  together.  The  first  may  give  way  to 
some  other  method  for  dividing  the  profits 
of  production  ;  but  the  factory  system,  per- 
fected, must,  whether  under  socialistic  or 
whatever  political  system,  remain  until  dis- 
integration is  the  rule  in  society. 

The  feudal  and  slave  systems  had  nothing 
in  them,  so  far  as  any  progressive  elements 
were  concerned,  from  which  society  could 
draw  the  forces  necessary  to  growth.  On 
the  contrary,  while  modern  civilization  owes 
much  to  the  feudal  system,  and  slavery  was 
in  its  origin  a  great  step  in  civilization,  these 
systems  reflected  the  most  depressing  influ- 
ences, and  were  in  great  measure  the  allies 
of  retrogression. 

The  domestic  system,  which  clauns  the 
eighteenth  century  almost  entirely,  was  woven 


OF  THE  LABOR   QUESTION  111 

into  the  two  systems  which  existed  before 
and  came  after  it.  In  fact,  it  has  not  yet 
disappeared. 

It  is  simple  fact,  however,  when  we  say 
that  the  factory  system  set  aside  the  domestic 
system  of  industry.  It  is  idyllic  sentiment 
when  we  say  that  the  domestic  system  sur- 
passed the  former,  and  nothing  but  senti- 
ment. 

There  is  something  poetic  in  the  idea  of 
the  weaver  of  old  England,  before  the  spin- 
ning machinery  was  invented,  working  at  his 
loom  in  his  cottage,  with  his  family  about 
him,  some  carding,  others  spinning  the  wool 
or  the  cotton  for  the  weaver;  and  writers 
and  speakers  are  constantly  bewailing  the 
departure  of  such  scenes. 

I  am  well  aware  that  I  speak  against  popu- 
lar impression,  and  largely  against  popular 
sentiment,  when  I  assert  that  the  factory  sys- 
tem in  every  respect  is  vastly  superior  as  an 
element  in  civilization  to  the  domestic  system 
which  preceded  it ;  that  the  social  and  moral 
influences  of  the  present  outshine  the  social 
and  moral  influences  of  the  old.     The  hue 


112  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

and  cry  against  the  prevailing  system  has  not 
been  entirely  genuine  on  either  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  Abuses  have  existed,  great  and 
abominable  enough,  but  not  equal  to  those 
which  have  existed  in  the  imagination  of 
men  who  would  have  us  believe  that  virtue 
is  something  of  the  past. 

The  usual  mistake  is  to  consider  the  fac- 
tory system  as  the  creator  of  evils,  and  not 
only  evils,  but  of  evil-disposed  persons. 
This  can  hardly  be  shown  to  be  true,  al- 
though it  is  that  the  system  may  congregate 
evils  or  evil-disposed  persons,  and  thus  give 
the  appearance  of  creating  that  which 
aheady  existed. 

It  is  difficult,  I  know,  to  establish  close 
comparisons  of  the  conditions  under  the  two 
systems,  because  they  are  not  often  found  to 
be  contemporaneous ;  yet  sufficient  evidence 
will  be  adduced,  I  think,  from  a  considera- 
tion of  the  features  of  the  two,  and  which 
I  am  able  to  present,  to  estabhsh  the  truth 
of  my  assertions. 

Do  not  construe  what  I  say  against  the 
domestic  system  of  industry  as  in  the  least 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  113 

antagonistic  to  the  family,  for  I  am  one  of 
those  who  believe  that  its  integrity  is  the 
integrity  of  the  nation ;  that  the  sacredness 
of  its  compacts  is  the  sacredness  and  the 
preservation  and  the  extension  of  the  race ; 
that  the  inviolability  of  its  purity  and  its 
peace  is  the  most  emphatic  source  of  anxiety 
of  law-makers ;  and  that  any  tendency, 
whether  societary  or  political,  toward  its 
decay  or  even  toward  its  disrespect  deserves 
the  immediate  condemnation  and  active 
opposition  of  all  citizens  as  the  leading 
cause  of  irrehgion  and  of  national  disinte- 
gration. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  "  the  term 
factory  system,  in  technology,  designates 
the  combined  operation  of  many  orders  of 
work-people  ...  in  tending  with  assiduous 
skill  a  series  of  productive  machines  contin- 
ually propelled  by  a  central  power.  This 
definition  includes  such  organizations  as  cot- 
ton-mills, flax-mills,  silk  and  woollen  mills,  and 
many  other  works ;  but  it  excludes  those  in 
which  the  mechanisms  do  not  form  a  con- 
nected   series,   nor    are    dependent    on    one 


114  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

prime  mover."  It  involves  in  its  strictest 
sense  "  the  idea  of  a  vast  automatum,  com- 
posed of  various  mechanical  and  intellectual 
organs,  acting  in  uninterrupted  concert  for 
the  production  of  a  common  object,  all  of 
them  being  subordinated  to  a  self -regulated 
movnig  force."  ^ 

So  a  factory  becomes  a  scientific  structure, 
its  parts  harmonious,  the  calculations  requi- 
site for  their  harmony  involving  the  highest 
mathematical  skill;  and  in  the  factory  the 
operative  is  always  the  master  of  the  machine, 
and  never  the  machine  the  master  of  the 
operative. 

Under  the  domestic  system  of  industry 
grew  up  that  great  pauper  class  in  England, 
which  was  a  disgrace  to  civilization.  It  was 
fed  by  the  agricultural  districts  more  than 
by  those  devoted  to  manufactures.  It  con- 
tinued to  grow  until  one-fourth  of  the 
annual  budget  was  for  the  support  of  pau- 
pers. The  evil  became  fixed  upon  the  social 
life  as  one  of  its  permanent  phases.  Legis- 
lation,   philanthropy,    charity,    were  utterly 

*  Dr.  Ure,  Philosophy  of  Manufactures^  p.  13. 


J 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  115 

powerless  in  checking  it;  and  it  was  not 
checked  till  the  inventions  in  cotton  manu- 
factures came,  since  which  events  it  has  been 
on  the  decline,  taking  the  decades  together. 
The  factory  absorbed  many  who  had  been 
under  public  support.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
drew  from  the  peasantry  by  the  allurements 
of  better  wages,  and  without  any  guaranties 
as  to  permanency  or  care  as  to  moral  respon- 
sibility ;  yet  on  the  whole  the  state  was  bene- 
fited more  than  any  class  was  injured. 

The  domestic  laborer's  home,  instead  of 
being  the  poetic  one,  was  far  from  the  char- 
acter poetry  has  given  it.  Huddled  together 
in  what  poetry  calls  a  cottage,  and  history  a 
hut,  the  weaver's  family  lived  and  worked, 
without  comfort,  conveniences,  good  food, 
good  air,  and  without  much  intelligence. 
Drunkenness  and  theft  of  materials  made 
each  home  the  scene  of  crime  and  want  and 
disorder.  Superstition  ruled  and  envy  swayed 
the  workers.  If  the  members  of  a  family 
endowed  with  more  virtue  and  inteUigence 
than  the  common  herd  tried  to  so  conduct 
themselves  as  to  secure  at  least   self-respect, 


116  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

they  were  either  abused  or  ostracized  by 
their  neighbors.  The  ignorance  under  the 
old  system  added  to  the  squalor  of  the  homes 
under  it,  and  what  all  these  elements  failed 
to  produce  in  making  the  hut  an  actual  den 
was  faithfully  performed,  in  too  many  in- 
stances, by  the  swine  of  the  family. 

The  home  of  the  agricultural  laborer  was 
not  much  better ;  in  fact,  in  Great  Britain 
and  France  he  has  been  exceedingly  suc- 
cessful in  maintaining  his  ignorance  and  his 
degraded  condition. 

Sentiment  has  done  much,  as  I  have  said, 
to  create  false  impressions  as  to  the  two 
systems  of  labor.  Goldsmith's  Auburn  and 
Crabbe's  Village  hardly  reflect  the  truest 
picture  of  their  country's  home  life. 

The  reports  of  the  Poor  Laws  Commis- 
sioners of  England  are  truer  exponents  of 
conditions,  and  show  whether  the  town  was 
during  the  first  fifty  years  of  the  new  sys- 
tem staining  the  country  or  the  country  the 
town.  "  From  the  documents  published  by 
these  commissioners  it  appears  that,  but  for 
the    renovating   influence   of   her   manufac- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  117 

tures,  England  would  have  been  overrun 
with  the  most  ignorant  and  depraved  of  men 
to  be  met  with  where  civilization  has  made 
much  progress.  It  has  been  in  the  factory  dis- 
tricts alone  that  the  demoralizing  agency  of 
pauperism  has  been  most  effectually  resisted, 
and  a  noble  spirit  of  industry,  enterprise, 
and  intelligence  called  forth."  *  Agricult- 
urists gave  children  and  youth  no  more 
than  half  the  wages  paid  them  in  factories, 
while  they  filled  the  workhouses  with  the 
unemployed.  Under  the  operation  of  the 
miserable  poor  laws,  which  the  domestic  sys- 
tem fathered,  the  peasantry  were  penned  up 
in  close  parishes,  where  they  increased  be- 
yond the  demand  for  their  labor,  and  where 
the  children  were  allowed  to  grow  up  in 
laziness  and  ignorance,  which  unfitted  them 
from  ever  becoming  industrious  men  and 
women. 

But  in  the  chief  manufacturing  districts, 
while  the  condition  of  the  factory  children 
became  the  subject  of  legislation  for  pro- 
tection, their  condition  was  one  to  be  envied 

*Ure,  p.  354. 


118  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

beside  that  of  the  children  in  mining  and 
agricultural  districts. 

The  spasmodic  nature  of  work  under  the 
domestic  system  caused  much  disturbance, 
for  hand  working  is  always  more  or  less  dis- 
continuous from  the  caprice  of  the  operative, 
while  much  time  must  be  lost  in  gathering 
and  returning  materials.  For  these  and 
obvious  reasons  a  hand  weaver  could  very 
seldom  turn  off  in  a  week  much  more  than 
one-half  what  his  loom  coidd  produce  if 
kept  continuously  in  action  during  the 
working  hours  of  the  day,  at  the  rate  which 
the  weaver  in  his  working  paroxysms  im- 
pelled it.*" 

The  regular  order  maintained  in  the  fac- 
tory cures  this  evil  of  the  old  system,  and 
enables  the  operative  to  know  with  reason- 
able certainty  the  wages  he  is  to  receive  at 
the  next  pay  day.  His  life  and  habits  be- 
come more  orderly ;  and  he  finds,  too,  that, 
as  he  has  left  the  closeness  of  his  home  shop 
for  the  usually  clean  and  well-lighted  factory, 
he  imbibes  more  freely  of  the  health-giving 

*  Ure,  p.  333. 


i 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  119 

tonic  of  the  atmosphere.  It  is  commonly 
supposed  that  cotton-factories  are  crowded 
with  operatives.  From  the  nature  of  things, 
the  spinning  and  weaving  rooms  cannot  be 
crowded.  The  spinning-mules,  in  their 
advancing  and  retreating  locomotion,  must 
have  five  or  six  times  the  space  to  work  in 
that  the  actual  bulk  of  the  mechanism  re- 
quires ;  and,  where  the  machinery  stands,  the 
operative  cannot.  In  the  weaving-rooms 
there  can  be  no  crowding  of  persons.  Dur- 
ing the  agitation  for  factory  legislation  in 
the  early  part  of  the  last  century  it  was 
remarked  before  a  committee  of  the  House 
of  Commons  "  that  no  part  of  a  cotton-miU 
is  one-tenth  part  as  crowded,  or  the  air  in  it 
one-tenth  part  as  impure,  as  the  House  of  Com- 
mons with  a  moderate  attendance  of  mem- 
bers." ^  This  is  true  to-day.  The  poorest 
factory  in  this  country  is  as  good  a  place  to 
breathe  in  as  Representatives  Hall  during 
sessions,  or  the  ordinary  school-room.  In 
this  respect  the  new  system  of  labor  far 
surpasses  the  old. 

*Ure,  p.  402. 


120  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

Bad  air  is  one  of  the  surest  influences  to 
intemperance,  and  it  is  clearly  susceptible  of 
proof  that  intemperance  does  not  exist  and 
has  not  existed  to  such  alarming  degrees 
under  the  new  as  under  the  old  system. 
Certainly,  the  influence  of  bad  air  has  not 
been  as  potent. 

The  regularity  required  in  miQs  is  such  as 
to  render  persons  who  are  in  the  habit  of 
getting  intoxicated  unfit  to  be  employed 
there,  and  many  manufacturers  object  to  em- 
ploying persons  guilty  of  the  vice.  Yet,  not- 
withstanding all  the  efforts  which  have  been 
made  to  stop  the  habit,  the  beer-drinking 
operatives  of  factory  towns  still  constitute  a 
most  serious  drawback  to  the  success  of  in- 
dustrial enterprises ;  but  its  effects  are  not  so 
ruinous  under  the  new  as  under  the  old  sys- 
tem. 

At  Amiens,  France,  the  two  systems  were 
in  existence,  side  by  side  and  in  full  force, 
in  1860,  and  are  now  to  considerable  extent. 
From  the  investigations  of  Reybaud,  it  is 
shown  that  the  domestic  system  exists  in  the 
country  around  Amiens,  while  the  factory 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  121 

system  prevails  in  the  city  itself.  The 
country  workers  have  had  a  very  bad  reputa- 
tion. The  evil  of  intemperance  is  invet- 
erate. 

"  The  people  living  under  the  old  system 
resisted  improvement.  They  wished  to  live 
and  die  in  the  houses  of  their  parents,  and 
expressed  no  desire  to  leave  them.''  The 
great  mass  of  these  workers  were  at  home, 
even  at  a  date  as  late  as  1860,  under  a  roof 
that  was  never  abandoned.  The  investiga- 
tion just  referred  to  proves  that  the  homes 
of  the  factory  workers  were  incontestably 
better  than  those  of  the  home  workers,  for 
they  were  free  from  the  inciunbrances  and 
clogging  influences  which  existed  when  the 
means  and  materials  for  manufacture  dis- 
puted with  the  necessities  of  housekeeping 
for  a  great  part  of  the  room.  This  differ- 
ence in  the  houses  under  the  two  systems  is 
also  the  result  of  circiunstances  easily  ex- 
plained. The  factory  workers  as  a  rule  earn 
more  than  the  home  workers.  By  having 
fixed  and  regular  hours,  they  are  kept  from 
faUing  into  habits  of  idleness.     They  know 


122  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

to  a  centime  what  they  will  have  at  the  end 
of  the  week.  Their  dependence  is  their  se- 
curity. Their  wages  have  the  merit  of 
steadiness.  The  condition  of  the  home 
workers  is  precarious.  Weeks  and  months 
pass  at  times,  and  they  out  of  work.  Finan- 
cial crises,  derangements  of  commerce, 
change  in  fashion, —  all  these  affect  them 
far  more  seriously  than  they  do  the  factory 
people.  To-morrow  is  never  sure  with  the 
workers  under  the  domestic  system,  and  pri- 
vation in  the  future  is  always  staring  them 
in  the  face.  All  these  bad  conditions  are 
aggravated  by  the  serious  intemperance  of 
the  home  workers  about  Amiens. 

There  are  no  heads  of  estabhshments  to 
influence  these  men.  They  occupy  an  inde- 
pendent and  really  an  isolated  position. 
Under  the  factory  system  in  France,  intem- 
perance is  often  dealt  with  effectually,  and 
the  first  honor  belongs  to  the  heads  of  the 
establishments.  By  concerted  action,  which 
should  be  taken  for  example,  they  closed 
their  doors  against  those  addicted  to  intem- 
perance,   and    where    drunkenness    marked 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  123 

them  as  the  ones  to  be  excluded.  Efforts 
were  made  to  secure  pledges,  and  with  suc- 
cess. To-day  drunkenness  is  not  an  obsta- 
cle to  the  success  of  manufacturing  estab- 
lishments either  in  this  country  or  in 
England. 

In  this  country  the  proprietors  of  factories 
have  taken  a  position  in  regard  to  intemper- 
ance, in  many  instances,  which  reflects  the 
highest  honor  upon  them.  Many  years  ago 
at  York  Mills,  in  Maine,  Mr.  Samuel  Batch- 
elder,  the  agent,  issued  regulations  prohibit- 
ing the  use  of  intoxicants  by  the  operatives. 
When  his  example  is  followed  generally,  we 
shall  have  less  of  the  beer-shop  in  factory 
towns. 

The  statistics  of  crime  usually  offer  evi- 
dence of  the  tendencies  of  different  classes 
in  a  community.  In  studying  these  statistics 
for  large  manufacturing  centres  in  Great 
Britain,  I  have  found  that  neither  the  crimi- 
nal ranks  nor  the  ranks  of  prostitution  are 
fiUed  up  from  the  factories.  Much  has  been 
said  about  Manchester,  England,  and  its 
"hoodlum"  class  cited  as  the  operative  pop- 


124  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

ulation.  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
truth.  It  is  the  miserable  hovel  tenantry 
outside  the  factory  workers  which  makes 
Manchester's  criminal  list  so  large. 

The  common  mistake  writers  have  made 
is  in  taking  a  place  like  Manchester  by 
which  to  judge  the  factory  system.  Man- 
chester is  not  purely  a  factory  town.  Visi- 
tors make  the  double  blunder  of  believing 
that  all  its  working  classes  belong  to  the 
factory  population,  and  that  all  the  miscon- 
duct they  witness  or  hear  about  among 
females  of  the  lower  rank  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  factory  system.  The  testimony  from 
a  return  from  the  penitentiary  of  Manches- 
ter "proves  how  far  the  ranks  of  prosti- 
tution are  recruited  from  factory  girls  in 
proportion  to  other  classes."  This  report 
stated  that  only  eight  out  of  fifty  proceeded 
from  factories,  while  twenty-nine  out  of  fifty 
were  from  domestic  service.*  I  could  quote 
many  statistics  upon  kindred  points.  It  is 
sufficient  to  know  that  the  attempts  made  to 
support  charges  of  the  abundance  of  crime 

*  Taylor,  p.  45. 


OF  THE  LAB  OB  QUESTION  125 

and  prostitution  in  operative  towns  in  Eng- 
land by  statistical  tables  have  all  been  based 
on  the  supposition  that  the  great  town 
nuisances  are  identical  or  connected  with  the 
factory  system.  My  own  inquiries  and  ex- 
amination of  criminal  records  disprove  the 
common  assumption. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  immorality  exists 
among  factory  operatives  the  same  as  it 
exists  on  Fifth  Avenue  and  everywhere  else 
on  earth  where  men  and  women  are  found, 
but  I  do  not  believe  that  it  exists  in  any 
greater  proportion  in  the  factory  than  in 
any  other  walk  of  life.  On  the  other  hand, 
I  beheve  that  immoral  lives  are  less  frequent 
among  the  factory  population  than  among 
any  other  class  in  the  community ;  and  in- 
vestigations, and  extensive  ones  at  that,  in 
this  country  and  abroad  teach  the  truth  of 
this  assertion. 

Some  years  ago  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  look  over  some  of  the  great  thread  works 
in  Paisley,  Scotland ;  and  this  very  question 
of  immoraHty  was  discussed  with  the  fore- 
man of  one  of  the  works.     One  gentleman. 


126  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

who  had  been  connected  with  the  Coates 
factories  for  forty  years,  informed  me  that 
during  that  period  he  had  known  but  one 
girl  who  had  departed  from  a  strictly  honest 
life  ;  and  she,  as  soon  as  her  habits  were 
known,  was  ostracised  by  the  coldness  of  her 
associates.  This  I  found  to  be  true  in  almost 
every  factory  I  have  ever  visited.  As  soon 
as  a  girl  loses  her  character,  her  mates  frown 
upon  her,  and  she  is  fairly  driven  from  the 
field.  Women  in  cotton-mills  and  in  aU 
other  factories  are  as  careful  of  their  charac- 
ters as  is  any  other  class.  The  charge  that 
the  factory  breeds  immorality  among  women 
is  not  true,  and  cannot  be  sustained  by  any 
facts  that  have  ever  been  collected.  This 
one  condition  constitutes  the  factory  an  im- 
portant element  in  social  li£e  ;  for  the  women 
who  are  there,  and  are  working  for  low 
wages, —  lower  than  any  of  us  would  like  to 
have  paid,  but  which  are  governed  according 
to  economic  conditions  and  law, —  are  work- 
ing honestly  and  faithfully,  and  living  honest 
and  virtuous  lives.  It  must  be  so.  Women 
cannot  work  eight  or  ten  or  twelve  or  more 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  127 

hours  in  a  cotton-factory,  and  live  a  dissolute 
life  the  rest  of  the  day. 

What  has  been  said  is  equally  true  of 
France.  In  one  locality,  out  of  a  criminal 
Hst  of  4,992,  but  216  were  workers  in  the 
textile  factories.'^ 

It  is  a  fact  that  the  factories  in  France 
are  increasing  in  number,  and  consequently 
operatives  are  drawn  into  them.  Now  in  this 
process  of  change  from  the  old  to  the  new 
industrial  system,  which  has  been  watched 
by  careful  investigators,  the  direct  results 
are  easily  seen.  If  the  factories  have  a  bad 
influence  on  morals,  crime  should  remain  in 
proportion  as  the  number  of  factory  workers 
increased.  The  contrary,  however,  is  the 
case ;  for  in  the  locality  already  alluded  to 
the  criminal  list  in  1855  was  2,214,  while  in 
1859  it  had,  by  steady  reduction,  fallen  to 
1,654,  and  in  a  constantly  increasing  factory 
population. 

These  facts  are  representative,  not  isolated, 
in  their  nature ;  and  they  prove  conclusively 
the  falsity  of  prevailing  impressions.     They 

*  Reybaud,  Cotton,  p.  108. 


128  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

are  witnesses  that  the  newer  system,  by  secur- 
ing more  competency,  fights  bad  instincts 
with  the  very  best  of  weapons, —  the  interest 
of  those  it  employs. 

In  great  towns  the  factories  have  had  to 
contend  with  all  the  nuisances  which  a  rapid 
increase  of  population  beyond  the  due  limits 
of  accommodation  must  necessarily  produce. 
The  only  places  where  the  factory  system 
can  be  fairly  tested  on  its  own  merits  are  the 
small  towns  in  which  the  factory  makes  the 
place.  Oldham,  England,  is  the  true  type, 
not  Manchester. 

Mr.  N.  W.  Senior  has  given  abundant 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  these  positions. 

There  is  another  supposition  relative  to 
the  factory  to  which  I  wish  to  call  attention, 
and  which  relates  emphatically  to  the  topic 
of  this  paper.  It  is  that  the  factory  has  a 
dwarfing  influence  upon  skill :  that  skill  is 
degraded  to  common  labor.  This  supposi- 
tion also  arises  from  a  superficial  examina- 
tion of  modern  establishments,  wherein  a 
cheap  and  often  ignorant  body  of  laborers  is 
employed,  the  appearance  being  that  skilled 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  129 

and  intelligent  workmen  are  replaced  by 
unskilled  and  unintelligent  workmen,  and 
the  conclusion  being  that  the  modern  system 
forces  the  skilled  and  intelligent  workman 
downward  in  the  scale  of  civilization.  This 
is  not  the  true  sociological  conclusion,  which 
is  that  the  modern  system  of  industry  gives 
the  skilled  and  intelligent  workman  an  oppor- 
tunity to  rise  in  the  scale  of  employment, 
in  intellectual  development,  in  educational 
acquirements,  in  the  grade  of  services  ren- 
dered, and  hence  his  social  standing  in  his 
community,  while  at  the  same  time  it  enables 
what  was  an  unskilled  and  unintelligent 
body  of  workers  to  be  employed  in  such 
ways  and  under  such  conditions  and  sur- 
rounded by  such  stimulating  influences  that 
they  in  turn  become  inteUigent  and  skilled, 
and  crowd  upward  into  the  positions  formerly 
occupied  by  their  predecessors,  thus  enabHng 
them  to  secure  the  social  standard  which 
they  desire.  This  conclusion,  it  seems  to 
me,  is  the  true  one,  and  makes  the  discus- 
sion of  the  question  whether  the  modern 
system  of  industry,  the  factory,  really  has 


130  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

a  stimulating  effect  upon  the  intellectual 
growth  of  the  people  not  only  an  inter- 
esting, but  a  pecuHarly  appropriate,  one 
at  all  times.  ^ 

What  is  the  truth  as  to  wages  ?  The  vast 
influence  of  wages  upon  social  life  need  not 
be  considered  here,  but  the  question  whether 
the  factory  system  has  increased  them  may 
be.  I  am  constantly  obliged,  in  my  every- 
day labors,  to  refute  the  assertion  that  wages 
under  the  factory  system  are  growing  lower 
and  lower.     The  reverse  is  the  truth,  which 


*  "  As  to  the  abasement  of  intelligence  which  is  said  to  follow 
in  proportion  as  tasks  are  subdivided,  it  is  a  conjecture  more 
than  a  truth  shown  by  experience.  This  abasement  is  presumed, 
not  proven.  It  would  be  necessary  to  prove,  for  example,  that 
the  hand  weaver,  who  throws  the  shuttle  and  gives  motion  to 
the  loom,  is  of  a  superior  class  to  the  machine  weaver  who 
assists,  without  co-operating,  in  this  double  movement.  Those 
who  really  know  the  facts  would  have  just  the  opposite  opinion. 
Employing  the  muscles  in  several  operations  instead  of  one  has 
nothing  in  it  to  elevate  the  faculties,"  and  this  is  all  the  oppo- 
nents of  machinery  claim.  In  their  view,  the  most  imperfect 
machines,  those  which  require  the  most  effort,  are  the  ones  which 
sharpen  the  intellectual  faculties  to  the  greatest  degree.  We 
can  easily  see  where  this  argument  would  carry  us  if  pushed  to 
the  end. 

"  There  is  nothing  in  the  working  of  machinery  which,  com- 
pared with  the  old  methods,  resembles  an  abasement  of  labor. 
The  easing  of  the  arm  does  not  lead  to  an  enfeeblement  of  the 
mind."    Cf.  Reybaud. 


OF  TUB  LABOR  QUESTION  131 

is  easily  demonstrated.  The  progress  of  im- 
provement in  machinery  may  have  reduced 
the  price  paid  for  a  single  article,  yard,  or 
pound  of  product,  or  for  the  services  of  a 
skilled  and  intelligent  operative ;  but  the 
same  improvement  has  enabled  the  workman 
to  produce  in  a  greater  proportion  and 
always  with  a  less  expenditure  of  muscular 
labor  and  in  less  time,  and  it  has  enabled  a 
low  grade  of  labor  to  increase  its  earnings. 
At  the  same  time,  a  greater  number  have 
been  benefited,  either  in  consumption  or  pro- 
duction, by  the  improvement. 

Experience  has  not  only  evolved,  but 
proven,  a  law  in  this  respect,  which  is,  the 
more  the  factory  system  is  perfected,  the 
better  will  it  reward  those  engaged  in  it,  ii 
not  in  increased  wages  to  skill,  certainly  ir- 
higher  wages  to  less  skill.* 

Better  morals,  better  sanitary  conditionSj 
better  health,  better  wages, —  these  are  the 
practical  results  of  the  factory  system  as 
compared  with  that  which  preceded  it ;  and 
tlie  results  of  aU  these  have  been  a  keerei 

*  Reybaud,  Cotton,  p.  19. 


132  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

intelligence.  Under  the  domestic  system 
there  existed  no  common  centres  of  thought 
and  action.  Religious  bigotry  has  fought 
against  the  new  order,  because  it  tends  to 
destroy  the  power  of  the  church.  Associa- 
tion kills  such  power  in  time.  One  of  the 
chief  causes  of  trouble  in  Ireland,  outside 
land  difficulties,  is  its  individual  system  of 
labor,  which  predominates.  Fill  Ireland  with 
factories,  and  her  elevation  is  assured;  in- 
deed, the  north  of  Ireland,  with  its  linen 
factories,  is  prosperous  to-day. 

The  factory  brings  mental  friction,  con- 
tact, which  could  not  exist  under  the  old 
system.  Take  our  own  factories  in  New 
England  to-day,  fed  as  they  are  by  foreign 
operatives.  When  they  go  back  to  their  own 
land,  as  many  do,  they  carry  with  them  the 
results,  whatever  they  are,  of  contact  with 
a  new  system ;  and  the  effects  of  such  con- 
tact wiU  tell  upon  their  children,  if  not  upon 
themselves.  The  factory  brings  progress 
and  intelligence.  It  establishes  at  the  centres 
the  pubhc  haU  for  the  lyceum  and  the  con- 
cert,   and    even    literary    institutions    have 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  133 

been  the  result  of  the  direct  influence  of  the 
system. 

Such  things  could  not,  in  the  nature  of 
conditions,  find  a  lodgment  under  the 
domestic  system.  It  is  in  evidence  that 
"  the  book-trade  of  Great  Britain  flourishes 
and  fades  with  its  manufactures  in  vital 
sympathy,  while  it  is  nearly  indifferent  to 
the  good  or  bad  state  of  its  agriculture." 

While  the  factory  system  is  superior  in 
almost  every  respect  to  the  individual  sys- 
tem, the  former  is  not  free  from  positive 
evils,  because  hmnan  nature  is  not  perfect. 
These  evils  are  few  compared  to  the  magni- 
tude of  the  benefits  of  the  system ;  but  they 
should  be  kept  constantly  in  mind,  that  pub- 
lic sentiment  may  be  strong  enough  some 
day  to  remove  them, —  in  fact,  it  is  removing 
them. 

Whatever  there  was  that  was  good  in  the 
old  household  plan  of  labor,  so  far  as  keep- 
ing the  family  together  at  all  times  and 
working  under  the  care  of  the  head  are  con- 
cerned, was  temporarily  lost  when  the  fac- 
tory system  took  its  place,  in  so  far  as  the 


134  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

old  workers  entered  the  factories.  This 
evil,  like  most  others  attendant  upon  the 
new  order,  has  been  greatly  exaggerated. 
The  workers  under  the  old  system  strenu- 
ously opposed  the  establishment  of  the  new ; 
and  this  led  to  the  employment  of  great 
numbers  of  parish  children,  a  feature  of 
employment  which  was  eagerly  fostered  by 
parish  officers.  Yet,  while  the  working  of 
young  children  in  mills  is  something  to  be 
condemned  in  our  own  time,  when  it  began 
it  placed  them  in  a  far  better  condition  than 
they  had  ever  been  in,  or  could  have  ex- 
pected to  be  in,  for  it  made  them  self-sup- 
porting. 

The  children  have  been  excluded  from  the 
factories  in  all  countries  gradually,  till  the 
laws  of  most  States,  European  and  Ameri- 
can, prohibit  their  employment  under  four- 
teen years  of  age,  except  on  condition  of 
their  attendance  at  school  for  a  prescribed 
length  of  time. 

A  great  evil  which  even  now  attracts  at- 
tention, and  in  our  own  country,  too,  is  the 
employment  of  married  women.    This  occurs 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  135 

more  generally  with  foreign  women,  and  too 
often  is  the  result  of  the  indolence  or  cupid- 
ity of  the  father.  Employers  have  done 
much  to  check  this  evil,  which  is  not  so 
much  an  evil  to  the  present  as  to  the  future 
generations.  It  is  bad  enough  for  the  pres- 
ent. It  robs  the  young  of  the  care  of  their 
natural  protectors,  it  demoralizes  the  older 
children,  it  makes  home  dreary,  and  robs  it 
of  its  amenities.  The  factory  mother's  hours 
of  labor  in  the  mills  are  as  long-  as  those  of 
others ;  and  then  comes  the  thousand  and 
one  duties  of  the  home  in  which,  although 
she  may  be  aided  by  members  of  the  family, 
there  is  little  rest.  No  ten-hour  law  can 
reach  the  overworked  housewife  in  any  walk 
of  life, —  certainly  not  when  she  is  a  factory 
worker.  Her  employment  in  the  mills  is  a 
crime  to  her  offspring,  and,  logically,  a  crime 
to  the  State ;  and  the  sooner  law  and  senti- 
ment make  it  impossible  for  her  to  stand  at 
the  loom,  the  sooner  the  character  of  mill 
operatives  will  be  elevated.  I  count  their 
employment,  with  the  consequent  train  of 
evils,  the  worst,  and  the  very  worst,  of  the 


136  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

evils  of  a  system  which  is  the  grandeur  of 
the  age  in  an  industrial  point  of  view. 

It  is  gratifying  to  know  that  in  Massachu- 
setts cotton-mills  only  about  8  per  cent,  of 
the  females  employed  are  married  women. 
This  is  equally  true  of  English  factories, 
and  I  believe  that  in  both  countries  the 
number  is  gradually  decreasing.  So,  too, 
the  number  of  operatives  who  live  in  indi- 
vidual homes  is  increasing. 

The  employment  of  children  is  an  evil 
which  has  been  stimulated  as  much  by  the 
actions  of  parents  as  by  mill  owners. 

These  evils,  however,  have  been  the  result 
of  development  rather  than  of  inauguration, 
and  thus  will  disappear  as  education,  in  its 
broad  sense,  takes  the  place  of  ignorance. 

The  evil  effects  of  the  kind  of  labor  per- 
formed in  mills,  so  far  as  health  is  concerned, 
have  been  considerable,  while  less  than  those 
attending  the  household  system. 

All  employments  have  features  not  con- 
ducive to  health.  These  features  or  con- 
ditions are  incidental,  and  cannot  be  sep- 
arated from    the    employment.     In    mining 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  137 

coal,  for  instance,  the  nature  of  the  occupa- 
tion is  bad  in  nearly  all  respects ;  but  coal 
must  be  had,  and  there  is  never  any  lack  of 
miners.     What,  then,  shall  be  done  ? 

Operators  are  in  duty  bound,  of  course, 
to  make  all  evils,  whether  incidental  or  arti- 
ficial, as  light  as  possible,  and  should  intro- 
duce every  improvement  which  will  lighten 
the  burden  of  any  class  who,  by  their  mental 
incapacity  or  other  causes,  are  content  to 
seek  employment  in  the  lowest  grades  of 
labor.  Machinery  is  constantly  elevating 
the  grades  of  labor,  and  the  laborer.  The 
working  of  mines,  even,  is  to-day  an  easy 
task  compared  to  what  it  was  a  few  years 
ago. 

The  workers  themselves  have  much  re- 
sponsibility on  their  own  shoulders,  so  far  as 
the  healthfidness  or  unhealthfulness  of  an 
occupation  is  concerned. 

Let  the  children  of  factory  workers  every- 
where be  educated  in  the  rudiments  of  san- 
itary science,  and  then  let  law  say  that  bad 
air  shall  be  prohibited,  and  I  believe  the 
vexed  temperance  question  will  not  ti'ouble 


138  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

US  to  the  extent  it  has.  Drunkenness  and 
intemperance  are  not  the  necessary  accom- 
panying evils  of  the  factory  system,  and 
never  have  been  ;  but,  wherever  corporations 
furnish  unhealthy  home  surroundings,  there 
the  evils  of  intemperance  will  be  more  or 
less  felt  in  all  the  directions  in  which  the 
results  of  rum  find  their  wonderful  ramifi- 
cations. 

The  domestic  system  of  labor  could  not 
deal  with  machinery :  machinery  really  ini- 
tiated the  factory  system ;  that  is,  the  latter 
is  the  result  of  machinery.  But  machinery 
has  done  something  more, —  it  has  brought 
with  it  new  phases  of  civilization ;  for,  while 
it  means  the  factory  system  in  one  sense,  it 
is  the  type  and  representative  of  the  civiliza- 
tion of  this  period,  because  it  embodies,  so 
far  as  mechanics  are  concerned,  the  concen- 
trated, clearly  wrought-out  thought  of  the 
age.  While  books  represent  thought,  ma- 
chinery is  the  embodiment  of  thought. 

Industry  and  poverty  are  not  handmaid- 
ens ;  and,  as  poverty  is  lessened,  good  morals 
thrive.     If  labor,  employment  of  the  mind, 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  139 

is  an  essential  to  good  morals,  then  the  high- 
est kind  of  employment,  that  requiring  the 
most  application  and  the  best  intellectual 
effort,  means  the  best  morals.  This  condi- 
tion, I  take  courage  to  assert,  is  superin- 
duced eventually  by  the  factory  system,  for 
by  it  the  operative  is  usually  employed  in  a 
higher  grade  of  labor  than  that  which  occu- 
pied him  in  his  previous  condition.  For  this 
reason  the  present  system  of  productive  in- 
dustry is  constantly  narrowing  the  limits  of 
the  class  that  occupies  the  bottom  step  of 
the  social  order. 

One  of  the  inevitable  results  of  the  fac- 
tory is  to  enable  men  to  secure  a  livelihood 
in  fewer  hours  than  of  old.  This  is  grand  in 
itself ;  for,  as  the  time  required  to  earn  a  liv- 
ing grows  shorter,  our  civilization  advances. 
That  system  which  demands  of  a  man  all  his 
time  for  the  earning  of  mere  subsistence  is 
demoraHzing  in  all  respects. 

The  fact  that  the  lowest  grade  of  opera- 
tives can  now  be  employed  in  mills  does  not 
signify  more  ignorance,  but,  as  I  have  said, 
a  raising  of  the  lowest  to  higher   employ- 


140  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

ments ;  and,  as  the  world  progresses  in  its  re- 
finement, the  lowest,  which  is  high  compar- 
atively, seems  all  the  lower.  Society  will 
bring  all  up,  unless  society  is  compelled  to 
take  up  what  is  called  a  simpler  system  of 
labor.  We  should  not  forget  that  growth  in 
civilization  means  complication,  not  simplifi- 
cation, nor  that  the  machine  is  the  servant 
of  the  workman,  and  not  his  competitor. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  factory  system  has 
not  affected  society  as  badly  as  has  been 
generally  believed ;  and  if  it  has,  in  its  intro- 
duction, brought  evils,  it  has  done  much  to 
remove  others.  "  The  unheard-of  power  it 
has  given  labor,  the  wealth  that  has  sprung 
from  it,  are  not  the  sole  property  of  any 
class  or  body  of  men.  They  constitute  a 
kind  of  common  fund,  which,  though  irreg- 
ularly divided,"  as  are  all  the  gifts  of  nature 
to  finite  understandings,  "  ought  at  least  to 
satisfy  the  material  and  many  of  the  moral 
wants  of  society."  * 

The  softening  of  the  misery  caused  by  the 
change  in  systems  has  occurred,  but  in  sub- 

*  Reybaud,  Cotton,  p.  22. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  141 

tie  ways.  Transition  stages  are  always  harsh 
upon  the  generation  that  experiences  them. 
The  great  point  is  that  they  should  be  pro- 
ductive of  good  results  in  the  end. 

The  mind  recoils  at  the  contemplation  of 
the  conditions  which  the  vast  increase  of 
population  would  have  imposed  without  the 
factory  system. 

"  It  is  a  sad  law,  perhaps,  but  it  is  an  in- 
variable law,  that  industry,  in  its  march, 
takes  no  account  of  the  positions  that  it 
overturns  nor  of  the  destinies  that  it  modi- 
fies. We  must  keep  step  with  its  progress, 
or  be  left  upon  the  road.  It  always  accom- 
plishes its  work,  which  is  to  make  better 
goods  at  a  lower  price,  to  supply  more  wants, 
and  also  those  of  a  better  order,  not  with 
regard  for  any  class,  but  having  in  view  the 
whole  human  race.  Industry  is  this,  or  it  is 
not  industry.  True  to  its  instincts,  it  has  no 
sentiment  in  it,  unless  it  is  for  its  own  in- 
terest; and  yet  such  is  the  harmony  of 
things,  when  they  are  abandoned  to  their 
natural  course,  notwithstanding  the  selfish- 
ness of  industry,  directed  to  its  own  good. 


142  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

it  turns  finally  to  secure  the  good  of  all ;  and, 
while  requiring  service  for  itself,  it  serves  at 
the  same  time  by  virtue  of  its  resources  and 
its  power."* 

Recent  writers,  notwithstanding  all  the 
facts  of  history,  find  a  solution  for  whatever 
difficulties  result  from  the  production  of 
goods  under  the  factory  system  in  the  dis- 
persion of  congregated  labor,  and  a  return 
to  simple  methods  when  they  would  have 
the  machines  owned  and  manipulated  as  in- 
dividual property,  under  individual  enter- 
prise ;  but  it  is  safe  to  assert  that  "  a  people 
who  have  once  adopted  the  large  system  of 
production  are  not  likely  to  recede  from 
it."  Labor  is  more  productive  on  the  system 
of  large  industrial  enterprises :  the  produce 
is  greater  in  proportion  to  the  labor  em- 
ployed ;  the  same  number  of  persons  can  be 
supported  equally  well  with  less  toil  and 
greater  leisure ;  and,  in  the  moral  aspect  of 
the  question,  something  better  is  aimed  at  as 
the  good  of  industrial  improvement  than  to 
disperse   the    workers    of    society    over    the 

*  Reybaud,  Cotton,  p.  13. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  143 

earth  to  be  employed  in  pent-up  houses  and 
the  sin-breeding  small  shops  of  another  age, 
where  there  would  be  scarcely  any  commu- 
nity of  interest  or  necessary  mental  com- 
munion with  other  human  beings.  "If 
pubHc  spirit,  generous  sentiments,  or  true 
justice  and  equahty  are  desired,  association, 
not  isolation  of  interests,  is  the  school  in 
which  these  excellences  are  nurtured."  * 

It  is  from  such  influences  we  discern  the 
elevation  of  an  increased  proportion  of 
working  people  from  the  position  of  un- 
skilled to  that  of  skilled  laborers,  and  the 
opening  of  an  adequate  field  of  remunerative 
employment  to  women, —  two  of  the  most 
important  improvements  which  could  be  de- 
sired in  the  condition  of  the  working  classes. 
Since,  therefore,  the  extension  of  the  factory 
system  tends  strongly  toward  both  these 
results,  it  may  be  considered  as  one  of  the 
features  of  the  present  age  which  is  the 
most  favorable  to  their  more  permanent 
advancement.! 

*  Mill's  Political  Economy,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  351,  352,  fifth  London 
edition. 

t  Cf .  Morrison,  Labor  and  Capital,  p.  195. 


144  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

It  is  also  true  that  the  factory  system  has 
stamped  itseK  most  emphatically  upon  the 
written  law  of  all  countries  where  it  has 
taken  root^  as  well  as  upon  the  social  and 
moral  laws  which  lie  at  the  bottom  of  the 
forces  which  make  written  law  what  it  is. 

With  the  exception  of  laws  relating  to  the 
purely  commercial  features  of  the  factory 
system,  the  legislation  which  that  system 
has  produced  has  been  stimulated  by  the 
evils  which  have  grown  with  it. 

It  is  the  worst  phases  of  society  which 
gauge  the  legislation  requisite  for  its  pro- 
tection. Laws  other  than  those  for  the 
regulation  of  trade,  and  the  protection  of 
rights  as  to  property,  by  definition  of  rights, 
are  made  for  the  restraint  of  the  evil-dis- 
posed, and  do  not  disturb  those  whose  mo- 
tives and  actions  are  right ;  so,  if  it  were  not 
for  the  evils  which  creep  into  existence  with 
every  advance  society  makes,  laws  would 
remain  unwritten,  because  not  needed.  We 
have  a  way  of  judging  by  the  worst  ex- 
amples. 

The  social  battles  which  men  have  fought 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  145 

have  been  among  the  severest  for  human 
rights ;  and  they  mark  eras  in  social  condi- 
tions as  clearly  as  do  field  contests,  in  which 
more  human  lives  have  been  lost,  perhaps, 
but  in  which  no  greater  human  interests 
have  been  involved. 

At  the  time  of  the  institution  of  the  fac- 
tory system,  there  was  upon  the  statute 
books  of  England  but  few  laws  relating  to 
master  and  man.  Those  which  did  exist 
were  largely  of  criminal  bearing,  establish- 
ing punishment  for  various  shortcomings  of 
the  men ;  but,  with  the  coming  of  the  new 
system,  the  evils  of  poor-law  abuses  came 
into  full  view,  and,  while  pauper  children 
were  vastly  better  off  in  the  factories  than 
in  the  parish  poorhouses,  they  attracted  at- 
tention, and  became  the  subjects  of  parlia- 
mentary protection.  For  the  first  time  there 
appeared  some  of  the  consequences  of  con- 
gregated labor,  or,  rather,  the  effects  of  the 
congregation  of  one  class  of  labor  appeared. 
A  whole  generation  of  operatives  was  grow- 
ing up  under  conditions  of  comparative 
physical   degeneracy,  of   mental   ignorance, 


146  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

and  moral  corruption,  all  of  which  existed 
before,  but  which  the  factory  system  brought 
into  strong  Hght. 

And  now  the  great  question  began  to  be 
asked,  "Has  the  nation  any  right  to  in- 
terfere? Shall  society  suffer,  that  individ- 
uals may  profit  ?  "  Shall  the  next  and  suc- 
ceeding generations  be  weakened  morally 
and  intellectually,  that  estates  may  be  en- 
larged ? 

These  questions  forced  themselves  upon 
the  public  mind,  and  the  fact  that  pauper 
apprentices  might  be  better  off  under  such 
apprenticeship  than  in  the  workhouse  could 
have  no  weight  under  the  influence  of  the 
great  religious  and  moral  waves  which  swept 
over  England  in  the  last  quarter  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

The  result  was  the  factory  act  of  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel,  1802.  While  this  act  was  of  no 
great  value  to  the  operatives,  it  was  of  the 
greatest  value  to  the  world ;  for  it  made  the 
assertion,  which  has  never  been  retracted, 
that  the  nation  did  have  the  right  to  check 
not  only  open  evils,  but  those  which  grow 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  147 

individually  through  the  nature  of  employ- 
ment. 

As  legislation  progressed  in  England,  the 
education  of  factory  children  was  provided 
for ;  so  through  the  factory  came  public  ed- 
ucation in  England. 

The  greatest  poverty  and  ignorance  pre- 
vailed in  the  agricultural  and  mining  dis- 
tricts of  England ;  and,  after  the  reports  of 
the  Poor  Laws  Commissioners  had  exposed 
the  demoralizing  results  of  the  want  of  edu- 
cation in  the  agricultural  hamlets,  it  was 
really  a  piece  of  singular  effrontery  on  the 
part  of  the  legislators  to  accuse  the  manu- 
facturers of  being  the  main  authors  of  the 
miserable  state  of  affairs  found  among  the 
tillers  of  the  soil,  and  to  require  the  em- 
ployers of  factory  labor,  under  heavy  pen- 
alties, to  be  responsible  for  the  education  of 
all  juvenile  operatives  whom  they  employed. 
Until  a  recent  date,  law  has  insisted  upon 
the  education  of  factory  children  only,  so 
far  as  England  is  concerned ;  and,  whether 
from  good  or  bad  motives  in  the  framers  of 
such  laws,  the  factory  system  has  been  made 


148  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

the  central  point  upon  which  popular  educa- 
tion in  England  has  turned.  And  this  ac- 
coimts  in  a  large  degree  for  the  superior  in- 
telligence of  the  factory  population  of  that 
country  when  compared  with  those  engaged 
in  agriculture.  In  this  very  direction  the 
influences  of  the  new  order  of  industry  upon 
legislation  is  clearly  marked. 

After  1847  the  provisions  of  factory  acts 
were  extended  first  to  one  industry  and  then 
another,  until  now  they  comprehend  very 
many  of  the  leading  lines  of  production. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  abuses 
which  crept  into  the  system  in  England 
never  existed  in  this  country  in  any  such 
degree  as  we  know  they  did  in  the  old  coun- 
try. Yet  there  are  few  States  in  America 
where  manufactures  predominate,  or  hold  an 
important  position,  that  law  has  not  stepped 
in,  and  restricted  either  the  hours  of  labor  or 
the  conditions  of  labor  or  insisted  upon  the 
education  of  factory  children,  although  the 
laws  are  usually  silent  as  to  children  of  agri- 
cultural laborers. 

Factory  legislation   in   England,  as   else- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  149 

where,  has  had  for  its  chief  object  the  regu- 
lation of  the  labor  of  children  and  women ; 
but  its  scope  has  constantly  increased,  by 
successive  and  progressive  amendments,  imtil 
it  has  attempted  to  secure  the  physical  and 
moral  Avell-being  of  the  workman  in  all 
trades,  and  to  give  him  every  condition  of 
salubrity  and  of  personal  safety  in  the  work- 
shops. 

The  excellent  effect  of  factory  legislation 
has  been  made  manifest  throughout  the 
whole  of  Great  Britain.  "Physically,  the 
factory  child  can  bear  fair  comparison  with 
the  child  brought  up  in  the  fields,"  and  in- 
tellectually progress  is  far  greater  Tvdth  the 
former  than  with  the  latter.  Public  opinion, 
struck  by  these  results,  has  demanded  the 
extension  of  protective  measures  for  chil- 
dren to  every  kind  of  industrial  labor,  until 
ParHament  has  brought  under  the  influences 
of  factory  laws  the  most  powerful  industries. 

The  conditions  belonging  to  the  factory 
system  are  constantly  forcing  themselves 
into  view  as  the  levers  which  overturn  old 
notions  and  establish  precedents  at  variance 


150  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

with  the  opinion  of  judges,  as  is  seen  in  the 
British  legislation  as  to  the  liabihty  of  em- 
ployers for  damages  resulting  from  acci- 
dents. 

There  is  a  class  of  writers  who  are  very 
fond  of  drawing  comparisons  between  con- 
ditions under  the  factory  system  and  those 
which  existed  prior  to  its  establishment. 
They  refer  to  the  halcyon  days  of  England, 
and  call  attention  to  the  EngHsh  operative 
working  under  hand  methods  as  a  happy, 
contented,  well-fed,  moral  person.  History 
teaches  just  the  reverse ;  for  it  shows,  as  has 
been  pointed  out,  that  prior  to  the  establish- 
ment of  the  factory  the  working  classes  of 
England  lived  in  hovels  and  mud  huts  that 
would  not  be  tolerated  even  in  the  worst  coal- 
mining districts  in  this  country  or  in  Eng- 
land to-day.  The  factory  graduated  all  these 
people  from  the  mud  hut.  But  what  was 
that  old  system  ?  Degrading,  crime-breed- 
ing, and  productive  of  intemperance  in  the 
worst  form  as  compared  with  the  factory  of 
to-day. 

So  the  whole  matter  of  the  consideration 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  151 

of  the  workingman  to-day  becomes  intel- 
lectual. He  is  carried  onward  and  upward 
by  the  power  of  mental  activity,  and  can- 
not be  treated  separately  as  one  of  a  class, 
as  he  could  in  the  olden  time,  because  iq  the 
olden  time  he  was  neither  a  social  nor  a  po- 
Htical  factor.  Changed  conditions  in  all  di- 
rections have  brought  mankind  to  a  new 
epoch,  the  distinguishing  feature  of  which  is 
the  factory  itself,  or  machinery,  which  makes 
it.  This,  we  see,  is  true  when  we  comprehend 
that  machinery  is  constantly  lifting  men  out 
of  low  into  high  grades  of  employment,  con- 
stantly surrounding  them  with  an  intellectual 
atmosphere,  rather  than  keeping  them  de- 
graded in  the  sweat-shop  atmosphere  of  the 
olden  time. 

The  weal  or  woe  of  the  operative  popula- 
tion depends  largely  upon  the  temper  in 
which  the  employers  carry  the  responsibility 
intrusted  to  them.  I  know  of  no  trust 
more  sacred  than  that  given  into  the  hands 
of  the  captains  of  industry,  for  they  deal 
with  human  beings  in  close  relations, —  not 
through  the  media  of  speech  or  exhortation, 


152  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

but  of  positive  association ;  and  by  this  they 
can  make  or  mar.  Granted  that  the  ma- 
terial is  often  poor,  the  intellects  often  dull : 
then  all  the  more  sacred  the  trust  and  all  the 
greater  the  responsibility.  The  rich  and 
powerful  manufacturer,  with  the  adjuncts 
of  education  and  good  business  training, 
holds  in  his  hand  something  more  than  the 
means  of  subsistence  for  those  he  employs. 
He  holds  their  moral  well-being  in  his  keep- 
ing, in  so  far  as  it  is  in  his  power  to  mould 
their  morals.  He  is  something  more  than 
a  producer :  he  is  an  instrument  of  God  for 
the  upbuilding  of  the  race. 

Of  course,  we  aU  know  that  the  condition 
of  the  worker  is  not  the  ideal  one.  We  all 
know  that  every  employer  who  has  the  wel- 
fare of  his  race  at  heart,  and  who  is  guided 
by  ethical  as  well  as  economic  motives,  would 
be  glad  to  see  his  work-people  receiving 
higher  pay  and  hving  in  better  houses, —  liv- 
ing in  an  environment  which  should  increase 
rather  than  diminish  their  social  force.  At 
the  same  time,  we  all  recognize  that  the 
sanitary  and  hygienic  condition  of  the  fac- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  153 

tory  is  vastly  superior  to  the  sanitary  and 
hygienic  condition  of  the  homes  of  the 
operatives  in  many  cases.  When  the  factory- 
operative  in  his  home  reaches  the  same  high 
grade  that  has  been  reached  in  the  factory 
itself,  his  social  force  and  life  will  be  in- 
creased and  his  standard  raised  to  a  much 
higher  plane.  All  these  things  are  matters 
of  development;  but,  when  we  understand 
that  manufacturers  in  this  country  are 
obHged  constantly  to  deal  with  a  heterogen- 
eous mass,  so  far  as  nationahty  is  concerned, 
while  those  in  other  countries  deal  with  a 
homogeneous  mass  of  operatives,  the  wonder 
is  that  here  we  have  kept  the  standard  so 
high  as  it  has  been.  In  considering  all  these 
aspects  as  briefly  as  they  have  been  touched 
upon,  we  cannot  but  feel,  as  I  have  indi- 
cated, that  the  factory  reaches  down  and 
lifts  up ;  that  it  does  not  reach  up  and  draw 
down  those  who  have  been  raised  to  a 
higher  standard.  This  is  the  real  ethical 
mission  of  the  factory  everywhere. 

Gentlemen  in  charge  of  factories  are  the 
managers  of  great  missionary  establishments. 


154  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

In  their  conduct  of  them  as  industrial  insti- 
tutions they  must  recognize  economic  laws 
and  conditions.  It  would  be  suicidal  to  take 
the  purely  ethical  view  at  the  expense  of 
the  economic;  but,  while  recognizing  the 
economic  conditions  which  compel  certain 
actions,  I  believe  there  is  no  great  difficulty 
in  recognizing  also  the  ethical  relations 
which  ought  to  exist  between  employer  and 
employe.  These  ethical  relations  are  be- 
coming more  and  more  a  force  in  the  con- 
duct of  industry.  Whether  the  new  develop- 
ments of  concentrated  industrial  interests 
will  lead  to  a  still  higher  recognition  of  the 
ethical  forces  at  work  is  a  question  which 
cannot  at  present  be  answered.  My  own 
behef  is  that  the  future  developments  of  in- 
dustry will  be  on  this  line,  and  that  the 
relation  of  the  employer  and  his  employes 
will  rest  upon  a  sounder  basis  than  here- 
tofore. 

The  social  condition  of  the  workingman 
and  his  education,  which  we  have  insisted 
upon,  have  led  him  into  the  strike  method 
as  a  means  of  asserting  what  he  calls  his 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  155 

rights.  He  has  in  this  adopted  the  worst 
examples  set  him  by  his  employers  in  the 
past.  Greater  intelligence,  a  broader  recog- 
nition of  the  necessity  of  higher  social 
standards,  will  lead  to  a  recognition  of  other 
principles  that  will  enable  him  to  avoid  in- 
dustrial war,  and  his  employer  to  recognize 
the  intelligence  which  is  willing  to  avoid  it. 

This  may  sound  like  sentiment.  I  am 
wilhng  to  call  it  sentiment ;  but  I  know  it 
means  the  best  material  prosperity,  and  that 
every  employer  who  has  been  guided  by  such 
sentiments  has  been  rewarded  twofold, — 
first,  in  witnessing  the  wonderful  improve- 
ment of  his  people,  and,  second,  in  seeing 
his  dividends  increase  and  the  wages  of  the 
operatives  increase  with  his  dividends. 

The  factory  system  of  the  future  will  be 
run  on  this  basis.  The  instances  of  such 
are  multiplying  rapidly  now ;  and,  whenever 
it  occurs,  the  system  outstrips  the  pulpit  in 
the  actual  work  of  the  gospel, —  that  is,  in 
the  work  of  humanity.  It  needs  no  gift  of 
prophecy  to  foretell  the  future  of  a  system 
which  has  in  it  more  possibihties  for  good 


156  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

for  the  masses  who  must  work  for  day  wages 
than  any  scheme  which  has  yet  been  devised 
by  philanthropy  alone. 

To  make  the  system  what  it  will  be,  the 
factory  itself  must  be  rebuilt,  and  so  ordered 
in  all  its  appointments  that  the  great  ques- 
tion for  the  labor  reformer  shaU  be  how  to 
get  people  out  of  their  homes  and  into  the 
factory.  The  agitation  of  such  a  novel 
proposition  will  bring  all  the  responsibility 
for  bad  conditions  directly  home  to  the  in- 
dividual, and  then  the  law  can  handle  the 
difficulty. 

With  true  men  at  the  head  of  industrial 
enterprises,  with  a  political  economy  which 
shall  recognize  the  power  of  moral  forces  in 
the  accimiulation  and  distribution  of  wealth, 
modern  productive  industry  will  be  not  only 
the  most  powerful  element  in  civihzation, 
but,  as  Dr.  W.  T.  Harris  has  said,  "  a  step  in 
the  problem  of  life."  We  recognize  the 
truth  which  underlies  this  statement,  as  well 
as  another  of  his,  that  '^  the  central  fact  in 
civil  society  is  the  division  of  labor."  I 
have  considered  the  factory  system,  by  the 


OF  THE  LABOR   QUESTION  157 

historic  and  comparative  methods,  as  the 
supreme  material  result  of  the  division  o£ 
labor.  The  profound  philosophy  of  the 
results  of  the  division  of  labor,  which  in- 
volves, of  course,  the  machinery  question 
and  the  factory  system,  can  receive  but  pass- 
ing hints  in  a  limited  chapter.  The  subject 
is  too  rich,  too  vast,  too  important,  for  more 
than  suggestive  treatment  at  the  present 
time. 


IV 
THE  ETHICS  OF  PRISON  LABOR. 


IV 

THE   ETHICS    OF   PRISON   LABOR. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  facts,  the  ex- 
perience, and  the  observation  which  go  to 
prove  that  civihzation  has  made  wonderful 
advances  in  almost  every  direction  during 
the  last  hundred  years  or  more,  the  assertion 
is  constantly  made  that  it  is  an  appearance 
of  progress,  and  not  real  progress,  that  at- 
tracts public  attention  ;  and,  however  much 
popular  education  may  be  stimulated  and 
supported  by  pubHc  funds,  and  material 
prosperity  may  attend  our  affairs,  and  music 
and  art  be  nearer  the  common  people  than 
ever,  nevertheless  the  pessimist  insists  that 
real  moral  conditions  have  not  changed  for 
the  better,  that  crime  increases,  that  mar- 
riages decrease  relatively,  that  vice  in  great 
cities  is  more  strongly  intrenched  than  ever. 
These  assertions  can  be  answered  in  nearly 
every  particular,  and   in   various  and   con- 

161 


162  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

vincing  ways  to  any  one  who  is  able  to  see 
beyond  present  existing  evils. 

One  of  the  purposes  of  this  chapter  is  to 
answer  the  charge  that  progress  is  apparent, 
and  not  real,  by  citing  one  phase  only  of 
social  science, —  the  condition  of  prison  labor 
as  an  index  of  real  moral  progress.  A  httle 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago  prisoners 
were  either  kept  in  idleness,  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  their  moral  and  physical  being,  or 
else  were  employed  in  what  is  known  as 
penal  labor.  Penal  labor  had  no  piu'pose 
except  as  it  resulted  in  a  supposed  discipHne 
of  the  prisoner.  He  was  kept  at  work  turn- 
ing a  crank,  or  in  a  treadmill,  or  throwing 
shot-bags,  or  doing  something  else  that  had 
no  utiHty  whatever  as  an  incentive.  It  was 
not  productive  labor  in  any  sense.  It  was 
grinding,  demorahzing.  It  may  have  had 
some  advantages  over  idleness  in  the  way  of 
physical  exercise ;  but  the  mental  and  moral 
consequences  were  such  as  to  quite  overcome 
the  physical  benefits.  Philanthropists,  phi- 
losophers, penologists,  began  to  see  that  mere 
penal  labor  was  not  much  better  than  idle- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  163 

ness ;  and  some  of  these  men  long  ago  de- 
scribed prison  policies  that  are  carried  out 
to-day. 

Mabillon,  a  famous  Benedictine  monk, 
Abbe  of  St.  Germain  in  Paris,  and  one  of 
the  most  learned  men  of  the  day  of  Louis 
XIV.,  was  one  of  the  earliest  of  those  who 
foreshadowed  many  of  the  features  of  mod- 
ern prison  discipline  and  of  prison  labor. 
In  his  dissertations  he  discussed  the  matter 
of  reformation  in  prison  discipline.  He  was 
born  in  1632,  and  died  in  1707.  It  was 
during  the  last  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury that  he  made  known  his  ideas  and  plans. 
It  was  his  opinion  that  penitents  might  be 
secluded  in  cells,  like  those  of  the  Carthusian 
monks,  and  there  employed  in  various  sorts 
of  labor.  To  each  cell  might  be  joined  a 
little  garden,  where  at  appointed  hours  the 
penitents  might  take  an  airing  and  cultivate 
the  ground. 

At  a  time  later  than  that  of  Mabillon, 
Clement  XI.  built  a  juvenile  prison  at  St. 
Michael,  Rome,  over  the  entrance  to  which 
there  was  placed  this  inscription  :  "  Clement 


164  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

XI.,  Supreme  Pontiff,  reared  this  prison  for 
the  reformation  and  education  of  criminal 
youths,  to  the  end  that  those  v/ho,  when 
idle,  had  been  injurious  to  the  state,  might, 
when  better  instructed  and  trained,  become 
useful  to  it."  This  prison  was  erected  in 
1704. 

Later  still.  Viscount  Vilain  XIV.,  Burgo- 
master of  Ghent,  built  the  celebrated  prison 
of  that  town,  the  construction  of  which  has 
had  its  influence  upon  prison  building  in  our 
time ;  but  the  architectural  merits  of  the 
prison  built  under  his  plan  are  the  least  to 
commend  it.  Dr.  F.  H.  Wines,  in  his  valu- 
able work,  PimisJiment  and  Reformation, 
gives  Vilain  the  credit  of  being  the  father 
of  modern  penitentiary  science.  He  made 
rules  for  the  government  of  the  prison  and 
the  organization  of  labor  in  it,  and  reaUzed 
that  in  the  use  of  prisoners  in  productive 
labor  was  to  be  found  the  primary  agency 
for  reformation  of  criminals.  He  appre- 
ciated the  importance.  Dr.  Wines  goes  on  to 
say,  of  the  selection  of  prison  industries, 
choosing,  so  far  as  practicable,  such  as  would 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  165 

come  least  into  competition  with  free  labor 
on  the  outside.  There  was  a  great  diversity 
of  vocations  followed  in  his  prison,  among 
which  were  carding,  spinning,  weaving,  shoe- 
making,  tailoring,  carpentry,  and  the  manu- 
facture of  wool  and  cotton  cards.  He  had 
some  purely  penal  pursuits  for  disciplinary 
purposes,  and  he  paid  great  attention  to  the 
classification  of  prisoners.  The  prison  was 
opened  in  the  year  1775. 

Howard  and  Beccaria,  the  first  an  Eng- 
lishman and  the  latter  an  Italian,  h^ang  and 
working  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  showed  the  utility  and  necessity  for 
labor  and  the  education  of  convicts. 

Thus  during  the  last  two  centuries  the 
elements  underlying  what  may  be  called  the 
philosophy  or  the  ethics  of  prison  labor 
were  laid.  Penologists,  philanthropists,  and 
politicians,  not  only  in  the  old  coimtry, 
but  in  this,  long  ago  saw  that  purely  penal 
labor  had  no  reformatory  elements  in  it,  and 
that  convicts  must  be  put  upon  some  prac- 
tical, productive  work,  in  order  best  to 
secure  their  reformation.     At  the  same  time 


166  SOME  ETHICAL  PEASES 

the  State,  through  its  representatives  every- 
where, felt  obliged  to  so  conduct  its  prison 
industries  as  to  secure  the  best  returns  to 
the  treasury ;  and  until  about  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago  there  was  no  serious  discussion 
of  the  systems  of  labor  other  than  on  a  treas- 
ury basis, —  the  profits  which  could  be  se- 
cured to  the  State  by  the  economic  utiHza- 
tion  of  prison  labor. 

The  great  changes  which  have  come  in 
methods  during  that  period, —  the  last 
twenty-five  years, —  by  which  more  sane 
considerations  have  been  followed,  and  by 
which  and  under  which  many  of  the  evils  in 
prison  discipline  have  been  brought  to  hght, 
are  due  primarily  to  the  agitation  of  the  labor 
reformers ;  but,  Hke  all  reforms,  the  real  ele- 
ments of  the  question  involved  soon  passed 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  initiators  through 
the  recognition  by  the  public  of  the  crucial 
principles  involved.  The  labor  reformers 
made  their  attack  along  certain  restricted 
hues.  They  alleged  that  the  employment 
of  convicts  in  productive  industry  interfered 
largely  with  the   rates  of  wages   and  with 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  167 

prices,  and  hence  prison  industries  were  a 
menace  to  their  welfare.  They  were  never 
able  to  make  out  a  very  strong  case  on  these 
lines ;  but  great  credit  is  due  them  for  per- 
sisting in  their  agitation,  and  thus  aiding 
penologists  and  philanthropists  in  calling  at- 
tention to  the  greater  question  of  how  re- 
formatory measures  coidd  be  introduced  in 
the  conduct  of  prisons.  Thus  the  prison- 
labor  question  became  something  more  than 
a  mere  economic  one.  Here  and  there  prison 
labor  did  affect  wages  and  prices,  but  in  all 
the  investigations  which  I  have  made  on  this 
subject  during  the  last  twenty  years  I  have 
never  found  much  influence  in  either  direc- 
tion growing  out  of  the  employment  of  pris- 
oners. The  question  was  there,  neverthe- 
less, and  demanded  attention ;  and  it  has 
received  it. 

Political  platforms  on  this  subject  were  as 
inconsistent,  and  even  as  amusing,  as  in 
other  directions.  Parties  would  insist  in 
their  platforms  that  the  administration 
should  keep  the  prisoners  at  work,  but  in 
such  ways  as  to  relieve  outside  labor  of  com- 


168  SOME  ETHICAL  PRASES 

petition.  Such  a  platform  is  in  line  with 
another,  which  we  have  often  seen,  demand- 
ing of  administration  a  reduction  in  taxation 
and  a  hberal  expenditure  for  public  uses. 

In  the  first  attacks  the  labor  reformers  in 
many  places  demanded  that  prisoners  should 
not  be  employed  at  all.  They  soon  saw  that 
this  would  not  do, —  that  taxation  for  the  sup- 
port of  prisons  would  cost  them  more  than 
the  slight  losses  they  might  meet  through 
competition.  They  further  saw  that  any 
work  done  anywhere  by  any  man,  whether 
in  or  out  of  prison,  was  in  competition  with 
the  work  of  some  other  man  who  wished  to 
perform  the  same  service.  They  never  quar- 
relled when  a  large  factory  of  a  thousand 
hands,  for  instance,  was  erected  in  a  com- 
munity ;  but,  when  a  thousand  convicts  were 
set  at  work,  they  felt  that  their  employment 
was  a  menace  to  them.  The  reports  that 
have  been  pubhshed  from  time  to  time,  both 
by  State  governments  and  by  the  federal 
government,  have  convinced  the  public  that 
the  volume  of  labor  performed  in  all  the 
prisons  of  the  country  was  not  and  could 


OF  TUB  LABOR  QUESTION  169 

not  be  a  menace  to  general  industry.  Nev- 
ertheless, there  was  enough  in  it,  as  I  have 
said,  to  demand  attention;  and  it  has  re- 
ceived the  most  thoughtful  consideration  of 
those  men  who  are  anxious  not  only  to  pre- 
serve and  strengthen  economic  conditions, 
but  to  adopt  those  reformatory  measures 
which  shall  in  the  end  prove  of  the  greatest 
advantage  to  society  at  large. 

It  was  natural  that  the  employment  of 
prisoners  should  assume  various  forms,  and 
hence  we  have  haK  a  dozen  systems  of  prison 
labor.  These  have  been  known  generally 
as  the  Contract  System,  the  Piece  Price  Sys- 
tem, the  Lease  System,  and  the  Pubhc  Ac- 
coimt  System.  Mr.  Victor  H.  Olmsted,  one 
of  the  statistical  experts  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Labor,  in  making  up  a  digest 
of  convict  labor  laws  in  force  in  the  United 
States  at  the  present  time  for  the  use  of  the 
Lidustrial  Commission,  has  very  properly 
classified  the  various  systems  authorized  by 
statutes  for  the  employment  of  convicts  into 
two  groups,  as  follows  :  — 

First,  systems  under   which  the   product 


170  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

or  profits  of  the  convicts'  labor  is  shared  by 
the  State  with  private  individuals,  firms,  or 
corporations.  Under  this  group  three  dis- 
tinct systems  are  authorized,  known  respec- 
tively as  the  Contract  System,  the  Piece 
Price  System,  and  the  Lease  System. 

Second,  systems  under  which  convicts 
are  worked  wholly  for  the  benefit  of  the 
State  or  its  political  subdivisions  or  public 
institutions.  Under  this  group  he  classes 
three  systems,  also  authorized  by  statutes, 
known  as  the  Public  Account  System,  the 
State  Use  System,  and  the  Public  Ways  and 
Works  System. 

All  these  systems  or  methods  of  employ- 
ing convicts  have  been  discussed  over  and 
over  again,  their  advantages  and  disadvan- 
tages considered,  and  their  effect  upon  the 
treasury,  upon  the  convict,  and  upon  what  is 
known  as  free  labor.  In  fact,  all  the  ele- 
ments concerning  the  employment  of  con- 
victs have  received  very  great  attention, 
not  only  from  members  of  prison  associa- 
tions, but  from  legislators,  economists,  and 
sociologists  everywhere. 


OF  THE  LABOR   QUESTION  171 

Looking  back  to  the  sentiments  announced 
by  the  men  cited  at  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter,  who  may  be  denominated  the  pio- 
neers in  advanced  thought  relative  to  dis- 
cipline in  prisons  and  the  employment  of 
inmates,  it  is  found  that  at  the  present  day 
there  have  been  modifications  which  lead  to 
conclusions  entirely  different  from  those 
which  formed  the  basis  of  statutory  pro- 
visions a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  These 
modifications  have  come  through  experience 
and  enlightenment.  We  have  all  changed 
our  views  more  or  less.  Personally,  I  am 
very  glad  to  say  that,  while  studying  this 
question  of  prison  labor  officially  for  more 
than  a  score  of  years,  I  have  seen  the 
changes  which  have  caused  me  to  enlarge 
my  ideas  in  some  respects,  to  modify  them 
in  others.  Contact  with  a  system,  practical 
observation  of  it  or  any  phase  of  it,  are  in- 
structive and  broadening.  We  all  remember 
how  every  one  —  especially  in  the  north  —  at 
all  interested  in  penology  and  the  effects  of 
prison  labor  would  condemn  in  most  unmiti- 
gated terms  the  Lease  System  of  the  South. 


172  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

At  the  same  time,  they  praised  the  Contract 
System,  which  prevailed  generally  in  northern 
prisons.  Afterwards  we  all  began  to  con- 
demn the  Contract  System ;  while  the  labor 
and  prison  reformers  in  the  South,  in  begin- 
ning to  condemn  their  own  system,  demanded 
the  application  of  the  Contract  System  of  the 
North.  The  enlightening  influence  of  knowl- 
edge in  this  respect  was  well  illustrated 
during  the  session  of  the  National  Prison 
Association  at  Atlanta  in  1886.  During 
that  session  the  prison  authorities  of  Georgia 
invited  the  members  of  the  association  to 
inspect  a  convict  camp.  It  was  my  pleasure 
to  be  one  of  the  party.  Going  out  on  the 
train,  one  could  hear  only  general  condem- 
nation of  the  Southern  system.  Coming 
back  to  the  city,  the  remark  was  frequently 
made,  and  by  some  of  the  most  distinguished 
penologists  of  the  country,  that  they  had 
seen  a  great  light ;  that  the  employment  of 
the  class  of  prisoners  which  prevailed  most 
generally  in  the  South  must,  for  a  time,  be 
under  the  odious  Lease  System,  for  it  fur- 
nished them  with  outdoor  work,  and  at  the 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  173 

same  time  helped  the  treasury.  It  would 
have  been  insane  on  the  part  of  the  Southern 
authorities  to  have  placed  the  negro  convicts, 
especially,  in  such  prison  constructions  as  we 
have  in  the  North.  It  was  made  plain  to 
the  Northern  visitors  that  any  such  course 
would  have  resulted  in  an  enormous  death- 
rate,  without  any  substantial  economic  re- 
sults. They  found  that  the  Southern  au- 
thorities regretted  the  necessity  of  the  Lease 
System  ;  that,  after  the  war,  when  the  South- 
ern States  were  obhged  to  take  care  of  a 
large  class  of  criminals  that  had  been  dealt 
with  in  different  ways  prior  thereto,  they 
were  compelled  to  resort  to  the  most  primi- 
tive methods  of  employing  them.  So  the 
Lease  System  was  really  a  valuable  sug- 
gestion at  the  time.  It  is  outgrowing  its 
usefulness.  The  evils  of  it  have  proved 
greater  than  its  advantages,  and  the  South- 
ern authorities  are  considering  this  ques- 
tion of  prison  labor  along  broader  and 
more  enlightened  lines.  I  refer  to  this 
simply  to  show  how  any  great  question 
changes  with  the   conditions  accompanying 


174  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

it,  and  with  the  thought  and  study  of  its 
students. 

The  Contract  System  was  and  is  probably 
the  best  for  the  treasury,  but  for  reformatory 
purposes  it  lacks  the  elements  of  control. 
The  facts  shown  by  investigation  prove  that, 
on  the  whole,  and  without  regard  to  systems, 
all  prisons  are  run  at  a  loss  to  the  State; 
and  the  conclusion  has  been  forced  upon  the 
public  mind  that,  if  thousands  of  dollars 
have  to  be  paid  for  the  support  of  prisons, 
and  the  return  for  labor  is  not  more  than 
from  50  to  75  per  cent,  of  the  cost,  prison 
labor  might  as  well  be  turned  into  reforma- 
tory measures  as  to  be  used  simply  for  any 
profit  it  brings  to  the  treasury.  This  is  the 
greatest  advance  in  the  prisonrlabor  question, 
—  the  ignoring  of  the  treasury,  except  in- 
cidentally, and  the  adaptation  of  the  work 
and  the  education  of  convicts  to  the  very 
best  results  to  the  individual  inmate.  Hence 
the  Contract  System  had  to  go,  and  with  it 
the  Piece  Price  System,  which  was  only  a 
modification  of  it.  I  need  not  dwell  upon 
the   evils  of   the  Contract  System, —  which 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  175 

was  once  thought,  on  the  whole,  the  very 
best  that  could  be  adopted, —  for  we  all 
know  them. 

The  crude  State  Account  System,  under 
which  goods  were  made  in  the  prisons,  under 
the  control  of  the  prison  authorities,  instead 
of  under  outside  contractors  and  the  super- 
intendence of  outside  instructors,  and  sold 
for  the  benefit  of  the  treasury,  seemed  at  one 
time  to  offer  a  fair  solution  of  the  diffi- 
culties ;  but  this  system  proved  insufficient, 
for  it  was  soon  found  that  goods  made  by 
convicts,  and  at  the  cost  of  the  State  as  a 
manufacturer,  were  sold  on  the  market  with- 
out any  very  great  regard  to  market  prices. 
And  thus  this  system  left  a  greater  impres- 
sion upon  outside  industry  than  the  Contract 
System  itself ;  at  least,  this  was  so  in  theory, 
and  it  proved  so  in  practice  in  many  in- 
stances. Yet  the  PubHc  Account  System 
had  in  it  reformatory  elements  which  were 
not  found  in  either  the  Lease  or  the  Contract 
System. 

The  next  step  in  the  evolution  was  a 
natural  one,   and  one  against  which  many 


176  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

objections  were  raised,  and  in  carrying  out 
which  some  serious  obstacles  seemed  to  exist. 
This  step  was  the  application  of  what  is 
properly  called  the  State  Use  System,  a  phase 
of  the  Public  Account  System  of  employing 
prisoners.  Under  this  system  prisoners 
were  to  be  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of 
things  to  be  used  by  the  prison  itself,  and 
by  other  State  or  public  institutions.  It  is 
curious  to  note  how  rapidly  this  idea  has 
been  adopted  by  State  governments  and  by 
the  United  States  government.  '  The  Eng- 
Hsh  prisons  gave  the  results  of  some  expe- 
rience in  utilizing  prisoners  on  public  works, 
and  this  led  to  the  partial  adoption  of  the 
system  of  employing  convicts  in  the  manu- 
facture of  things  which  the  State  itself  could 
use. 

The  history  of  the  adoption  of  the  State 
Use  System  in  this  country  becomes  interest- 
ing at  this  point.  Broadly,  this  system  is, 
as  already  intimated,  the  PubHc  Account 
System  in  all  respects,  except  that  the  prod- 
ucts of  the  convicts'  labor  manufactured 
from  raw  materials  purchased  by  the  institu- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  177 

tions,  and  under  the  sole  direction  of  prison 
officials,  or  produced  in  agricultural  or  other 
employments,  are  used  in  the  penal,  reform- 
atory, or  other  pubHc  institutions  instead  of 
being  sold  to  the  general  public. 

Twenty-eight  States  of  the  Union  provide 
for  the  Contract  System,  six  for  the  Piece 
Price  System,  twenty-five  for  the  Lease 
System,  forty-seven  States  and  Territories,  in- 
cluding the  District  of  Columbia,  for  the 
PubHc  Account  System,  and  twenty-four  for 
the  State  Use  features  of  the  Public  Account 
System.  In  some  of  the  States  providing 
for  the  State  Use  System  there  is  still  pro- 
vision for  the  use  of  the  Contract  System, 
and  even  for  other  phases  of  the  different 
systems;  but,  directing  our  consideration 
now  specifically  to  the  State  Use  System,  it  is 
found  that  the  first  State  in  the  Union  to 
provide  for  it  was  Nevada,  by  an  act  of  the 
legislature  approved  Feb.  28,  1887.  Ne- 
vada did  not  adopt  the  broad  State  Use  Sys- 
tem as  it  is  now  conducted  in  some  States ; 
but  it  provided  that  State  prison  convicts  en- 
gaged   in    the    manufacture    of   boots    and 


178  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

shoes  should  make  all  the  boots  and  shoes 
required  for  the  use  of  the  inmates  of  the 
prison  and  by  wards  of  the  State  and  other 
institutions,  to  be  paid  for  by  such  institu- 
tions. By  later  acts,  the  State  required  the 
employment  of  its  convicts  in  preparing 
stone  and  other  materials  for  use  in  the  con- 
struction of  public  buildings. 

The  next  State  to  indulge  in  any  legisla- 
tion upon  this  new  system  was  Massachu- 
setts, by  an  act  approved  June  16,  1887,  in 
which  act  it  is  provided  that, — 

"  The  general  superintendent  shall,  as  far 
as  may  be,  have  manufactured  in  the  State 
prison,  reformatories,  and  houses  of  cor- 
rection such  articles  as  are  in  common  use 
in  the  several  State  and  county  institutions. 
He  shall,  from  time  to  time,  notify  the  of- 
ficers of  such  institutions  having  charge  of 
the  purchase  of  suppHes  of  such  goods  as 
he  has  remaining  in  hand ;  and  said  officers 
shall,  as  far  as  may  be,  purchase  of  said 
articles  as  are  necessary  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  institutions  which  they  may  represent. 
The  articles   manufactured    in    said   prison, 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  179 

reformatory,  or  house  of  correction  shall  be 
sold  at  the  wholesale  market  price  of  goods 
of  like  kind  and  grade." 

The  legislation  of  other  States  providing 
for  the  application  of  the  State  Use  System 
was  secured  at  later  periods,  mostly  since 
1890,  although  some  of  them  passed  laws  in 
1888  and  1889.  The  States  now  providing 
for  the  State  Use  System,  or  some  general 
feature  of  it,  are  Arkansas,  California.,  Indi- 
ana, Iowa,  Kansas,  Massachusetts,  Michigan, 
Minnesota,  Mississippi,  Missouri,  Nebraska, 
Nevada,  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  New 
York,  North  Carolina,  North  Dakota,  Ohio, 
Pennsylvania,  Tennessee,  Utah,  Washington, 
West  Virginia,  and  Wisconsin.  The  United 
States  government,  by  acts  passed  in  1894— 
95,  provides  that  convicts  m  the  United 
States  penitentiary  at  Fort  Leavenworth, 
Kan.,  shall  be  employed  exclusively  in  the 
manufacture  and  production  of  articles  and 
supplies  for  the  penitentiary  and  for  the 
government. 

There  are  other  States  which  adopt  the 
State  Use  principle    in  the  employment  of 


180  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

convicts  in  quarrying  and  preparing  stone 
for  the  building  of  roads  and  upon  public 
works,  thus  recognizing  the  principle  in- 
volved. These  States  are  Delaware,  Georgia, 
Illinois,  Iowa,  Maine,  Maryland,  New  Mex- 
ico, South  Dakota,  Oregon,  and  Virginia. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  the  purposes  of 
this  chapter  to  discuss  the  experience  of  all 
the  above-mentioned  States  that  have  adopted 
the  State  Use  plan,  even  if  the  information 
for  such  discussion  were  at  hand.  The  in- 
formation is  not  at  hand,  for  there  has  been 
no  general  investigation  covering  all  the 
States ;  but  we  may  learn  of  the  value  of  this 
system  by  looking  to  the  experience  of 
Massachusetts  and  New  York,  two  States 
which  have  felt  the  effects  of  the  agitation 
of  the  prison-labor  question  as  much  as  any 
other  State,  and  more  than  most  of  them. 

Under  the  law  of  Massachusetts  already 
quoted,  passed  in  June,  1887,  that  State  had 
no  experience.  Her  experience  has  been 
under  the  act  of  1898,  providing  for  the 
employment  of  prisoners  in  making  goods 
for  public  institutions.     New  York's  expe- 


OF  THE  LAB  OB  QUESTION  181 

rience  has  been  under  the  law  of  1896, 
which  authorizes  the  employment  of  con- 
victs in  State  prisons,  penitentiaries,  jails, 
and  reformatoiies  in  the  production  of  com- 
modities for  use  in  any  pubHc  institution  in 
the  State,  such  commodities  to  be  paid  for 
thereby.  In  the  application  of  the  State 
Use  System,  therefore.  New  York  has  had  a 
longer  experience  than  Massachusetts.  The 
new  constitution  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
which  went  into  effect  Jan.  1,  1895,  pro- 
vides that,  on  and  after  the  first  day  of 
January  in  the  year  1897,  no  person  in  any 
prison,  penitentiary,  jail,  or  reformatory 
shall  be  required  or  allowed  to  work,  while 
under  sentence  thereto,  at  any  trade,  indus- 
try, or  occupation  wherein  or  whereby  his 
work,  or  the  product  or  profit  of  his  work, 
shall  be  farmed  out,  contracted,  given,  or 
sold  to  any  person,  firm,  association,  or  cor- 
poration ;  but  this  section,  by  specific  lan- 
guage in  the  constitution,  is  not  to  be  con- 
strued to  prevent  the  legislature  from  pro- 
viding that  convicts  may  work  for,  and  that 
the  products  of  their  labor  may  be  disposed 


182  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

of  to,  the  State  or  any  political  division 
thereof,  or  for  or  to  any  public  institution 
owned  or  managed  and  controlled  by  the 
State  or  any  political  division  thereof. 

The  State  Use  System  is  therefore  the 
system  of  New  York,  both  by  constitutional 
and  statutory  provision.  The  failure  or  the 
success  of  this  system  in  these  two  States 
(New  York  and  Massachusetts)  must  be 
taken  as  indicative  of  the  failure  or  success 
in  the  other  States  that  provide  for  it ;  for 
the  obstacles  and  the  disadvantages,  as  well 
as  the  advantages,  of  the  system  are  on  trial 
there  more  perfectly,  probably,  than  in  any 
other  Commonwealth. 

The  first  obstacle  or  disadvantage  to  the 
State  Use  System  which  suggested  itself  to 
the  minds  not  only  of  those  who  were  thor- 
oughly in  favor  of  it,  but  of  its  opponents, 
related  to  the  volimie  of  demand  by  State 
institutions  for  prison-made  goods.  It  was 
assumed  by  many,  and  with  considerable 
reason,  that  the  niunber  of  convicts  available 
for  the  production  of  goods  needed  by  the 
State  would  be  vastly  in  excess  of  the  de- 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  183 

mand  therefor.  The  fallacy  in  the  reason- 
ing of  the  advocates  of  the  system  consisted 
in  a  lack  of  real  conception  of  the  relation 
of  producers  to  consumers.  It  was  loosely 
argued  that  the  prisoners  would  consume 
what  they  made. 

By  the  census  of  1890  there  was  one 
producer  of  manufactured  goods  to  14  of 
the  population.  This  statement  involves  all 
manufactured  products,  whether  consimied 
in  this  country  or  exported.  Taking  a 
single  industry,  that  of  men's  clothing,  it  is 
found  that  there  was  one  producer  to  248 
of  the  population.  Calculations  based  on 
the  actual  needs  of  some  States  showed  that, 
in  supplying  those  needs,  only  a  small  pro- 
portion of  the  prisoners  would  be  required. 
This  caused  apprehension  that  many  prison- 
ers would  have  to  be  kept  in  idleness.  For- 
tunately for  the  system,  this  objection,  it  is 
now  thought,  can  be  overcome,  and,  in  fact, 
has  been  partially  overcome  in  two  ways : 
New  York  has  solved  the  problem,  if  it  can 
be  solved  so  far  as  this  particidar  objection 
is   concerned,  first,  by  pro\dding   that   the 


184  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

product  of  prisons  may  be  used  in  supplying- 
all  State  institutions  and  those  of  any  politi- 
cal division,  thus  broadening  the  real  market 
for  prison-made  goods  on  the  basis  of  the 
State  Use  plan ;  second,  by  the  introduction 
of  methods  of  technical  and  trade  education, 
such  methods  to  be  applied  whenever  and 
wherever  there  are  any  idle  prisoners  com- 
petent to  be  instructed  under  the  system. 

Massachusetts  has  sought  to  solve  this 
problem,  following  the  obstacle  named, — 
that  is,  lack  of  demand, —  by  providuig  in 
the  preliminary  stages  of  the  system  that,  if 
goods  are  manufactured  beyond  the  demand, 
they  may  be  sold  in  the  market  under  cer- 
tain restrictions,  and  by  allowing  the  Con- 
tract System  to  prevail  for  a  while.  The 
law  under  which  the  State  Use  System  is 
applied  in  Massachusetts  was  passed  April 
14,  1898 ;  and  this  law  declares  that  it  shall 
be  the  duty  of  the  general  superintendent 
of  prisons  to  cause  to  be  produced,  so  far  as 
possible,  in  the  State  prison,  the  reforma- 
tories, the  State  farm,  and  the  jails  and 
houses  of  correction  articles  and  materials 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  185 

used  in  the  several  public  institutions  of  the 
Commonwealth  and  of  the  counties  thereof. 
It  gives  the  managers  of  the  different  insti- 
tutions controlled  by  the  State  or  the  coun- 
ties the  right  to  purchase  their  supphes  of 
outside  producers,  provided  they  cannot  be 
supplied  by  the  prisons ;  but  it  introduces  a 
very  severe  check  on  any  pretence  that  they 
cannot  be  suppHed  by  the  prisons  by  specify- 
ing that  no  bills  for  articles  or  materials 
named  in  the  list  which  the  general  superin- 
tendent is  obliged  to  furnish  all  institutions 
in  the  State  or  counties  purchased  otherwise 
than  from  a  prison  shall  be  allowed  or  paid 
unless  the  bill  is  accompanied  by  a  certificate 
from  the  general  superintendent  that  such 
goods  could  not  be  supplied  upon  requisition 
of  the  prisons.  So,  if  articles  or  materials 
are  not  on  hand  in  the  prison  storehouses, 
and  are  needed  for  immediate  use,  the  super- 
intendent shall  at  once  notify  the  officer 
making  requisition  that  the  same  cannot  be 
filled;  and  then,  and  then  only,  can  the 
articles  or  materials  be  purchased  elsewhere. 
The  particular  fault  of  the  law  is  that  it  does 


186  S03IE  ETHICAL  PHASES 

not  provide  that  all  institutions  in  any  politi- 
cal division  —  those  less  than  counties  —  are 
to  be  supplied  in  the  way  provided  for  State 
and  county  institutions.  The  New  York 
law  is  much  better  in  this  respect. 

To  learn  how  far  this  question  of  demand 
and  supply  offers  any  obstacle  to  the  success 
of  the  State  Use  System,  we  must  consult 
the  facts  alone.  Theories  and  wishes  and 
views  are  of  no  account.  The  superintend- 
ent of  prisons  of  New  York  states  that  the 
system  is  working  fairly  well  in  this  respect. 
During  a  recent  fiscal  year  there  was  a  de- 
crease in  Sing  Sing  shipments  of  over 
$113,500  and  an  increase  in  the  shipments 
from  Auburn  and  CKnton  of  nearly  $36,000, 
or  a  net  decrease  for  all  of  nearly  $67,000. 
The  causes  contributing  to  the  decrease  at 
Sing  Sing  are  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
in  1897  and  1898  large  quantities  of  supphes 
were  made  there  for  the  national  guard. 
The  attorney-general  held  that  the  guard  is, 
under  the  special  law  governing  it,  exempt 
from  the  provisions  of  the  law  requiring 
purchases  to  be  made  of  the  prison  ;  so  Sing 


i 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  187 

Sing  is  doing  no  work  for  the  national 
guard,  that  not  being  considered  a  State  in- 
stitution in  the  interpretation  the  attorney- 
general  puts  upon  the  present  law. 

During  the  same  year,  1897-98,  $50,000 
worth  of  street-brooms  were  shipped  to  the 
city  of  New  York ;  but  at  present  none  are 
being  shipped  to  the  city,  as  the  State  com- 
missioner of  prisons  assigned  the  street-broom 
industry  to  the  Kings  County  Penitentiary, 
and  the  brooms  for  New  York  City  are  now 
made  at  that  institution.  The  result  of  this 
was  that  a  thoroughly  organized,  instructive, 
and  prosperous  industry,  which  during  the 
previous  year  was  worked  to  its  full  capacity, 
later  on  practically  did  nothing.  Another 
reason  for  the  decrease  in  demands  upon  the 
Sing  Sing  industries  was  the  establishment 
in  several  State  hospitals  and  other  chari- 
table institutions  of  plants  for  the  manu- 
facture of  their  own  supplies  in  the  way  of 
boots,  shoes,  clothing,  etc.  The  industries 
at  Auburn  and  Clinton  prisons  are  such  that 
they  have  not  been  so  seriously  affected  by 
the  causes  just  enumerated,  and  thus  each 


188  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

of  these  prisons  shows  a  slight  increase  in 
shipments. 

Varying  demand  for  supplies  and  diffi- 
culties in  selecting  industries  belong  to  this 
feature  of  the  system;  but,  with  the  ex- 
tension of  the  supplies  under  the  New  York 
law  to  municipal  as  well  as  to  State  and 
county  institutions,  these  difficulties  are 
likely  to  disappear.  Already  the  demand 
for  school  furniture  from  Auburn  has  been 
nearly  doubled,  while  from  another  institu- 
tion it  has  increased  nearly  50  per  cent. 
The  superintendent  for  New  York  reports 
that  in  some  kinds  of  supplies  the  requisi- 
tions have  much  exceeded  the  capacity  of 
such  industries  for  production,  this  bemg 
true  in  respect  to  underwear,  hosiery, 
blankets,  and  school  and  office  furniture. 
Some  other  kinds  of  manufactures  have  been 
for  a  season  very  active  in  meeting  the  actual 
demands,  but  the  requisitions  diminish  in 
some  degree  and  at  times. 

Of  course,  there  is  great  difficulty  in  se- 
lecting the  right  kind  of  industries.  The 
short  experience  of  two  years  in  New  York, 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  189 

however,  has  demonstrated  that  bottom  facts 
need  to  be  studied  and  thoroughly  digested 
in  selecting  and  organizing  an  industry  for 
permanent  use  in  the  prisons.  These  facts 
indicate  that  the  quahty  and  quantity  of  the 
supplies  required  shall  be  satisfactory ;  that 
the  prisons  shall  manufacture  the  supphes 
successfully  at  market  prices;  that  the  de- 
mand for  the  goods  shall  be  permanent ;  that 
the  amount  of  such  supplies  consumed  shall 
maintain  such  demand  for  them  that  their 
production  will  furnish  employment  for  a 
sufficient  number  of  prisoners  to  insure  earn- 
ings to  meet  the  fixed  charges  of  the  indus- 
try,—  the  compensation  of  instructors,  fore- 
men, officers,  and  the  incidental  expenses, — 
and  also  afford  a  reasonable  return  to  the 
State  for  the  labor  of  the  convicts  ;  that  such 
production,  furthermore,  shall  not  exces- 
sively compete  with  free  labor  or  to  its  detri- 
ment. These  complex  demands,  which  nec- 
essarily enter  into  the  choice  of  an  industry, 
make  the  exercise  of  the  most  careful  and 
discreet  judgment  of  prison  authorities  vital 
in   organizing,   adjusting,  and  operating  in- 


190  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

dustries,  so  that  successful  production  shall 
not  outrun  the  demand  for  the  supphes. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  the  prison  authorities 
of  New  York  are  thoroughly  alive  to  this 
very  question,  constituting  the  first  obstacle 
that  has  been  met  in  estabhshing  the  State 
Use  System.  All  the  obstacles  were  sug- 
gested many  years  ago  by  Sir  Edmund  Du- 
Cane,  one  of  the  highest  authorities  in  the 
world  on  prison  labor. 

The  experience  of  Massachusetts  has  been 
practically  that  of  New  York,  but  it  is  in  a 
way  fairly  to  meet  the  demand.  When  it 
extends  the  system,  as  already  intimated,  to 
municipalities,  as  can  be  done  under  the 
New  York  law,  it  is  believed  the  obstacle 
now  being  treated  will  be  overcome. 

The  second  obstacle  which  has  been  raised 
to  this  system  relates  to  the  variety  of  goods 
needed  by  State  institutions,  it  being  feared 
that  the  labor  of  the  prisons  is  not  of  suf- 
ficient skill  to  produce  everything  that  may 
be  needed.  This  was  also  one  of  DuCane's 
chief  objections  to  a  system  which  he  thor- 
oughly favored,  and  there  is  something  in  it. 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  191 

Nevertheless,  with  the  attachment  to  the 
system  of  methods  of  technical  and  trade 
education,  there  is  no  reason  why  nearly  all, 
if  not  all,  the  supplies  requu-ed  by  public  in- 
stitutions cannot  be  produced. 

If  at  any  time  the  reader  should  be  in  Al- 
bany, it  is  suggested  that  he  go  to  the  Capitol 
and  visit  the  office  of  the  superintendent  of 
prisons  of  the  State  of  New  York.  There  he 
will  see  a  room  finished  in  beautifully  carved 
panels  of  quartered  oak.  The  workmanship 
is  fine,  the  designs  beautiful,  and  the  room  as 
handsome  as  any  that  can  be  found  in  a  pub- 
lic building ;  yet  the  carving  was  all  done  by 
the  prisoners  at  Sing  Sing,  worked  out  to  a 
plan  of  matching,  and  the  pieces  shipped  to 
Albany,  where  they  were  put  in  place  by 
workmen  of  that  city.  It  is  an  illustration 
of  the  efPect  of  the  efforts  to  educate  pris- 
oners in  high-grade  work.  Of  course,  the 
superintendent  would  not  have  fitted  up  tliis 
beautiful  room  had  it  not  been  for  the  fact 
that  he  wished  to  illustrate  by  this  object- 
lesson  the  results  of  the  educational  side  of 
the  system. 


192  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

Dr.  Brockway,  late  of  the  Elmira  Reform- 
atory, gives  much  information  relative  to 
the  results  of  technical  and  trade  educa- 
tion as  carried  on  in  the  magnificent  institu- 
tion under  his  charge.  The  work  has  been 
carried  so  far  there  that  that  prison  has  been 
denominated  a  great  technical  university. 
In  this  lies  the  solution,  probably,  of  the 
question  relating  to  variety  of  products. 
Time  must  be  given  the  system  to  demon- 
strate its  fullest  utility,  but  only  in  the  edu- 
cation of  convicts  can  the  obstacle  relating 
to  variety  be  fully  overcome.  Without  it, 
it  can  only  be  partially  overcome. 

The  third  obstacle  is  one  of  sentiment, 
purely  and  simply.  Army  officers  in  Ger- 
many have  objected  to  their  commands 
wearing  uniforms  made  in  prisons.  Militia 
officers  in  this  country  have  offered  the 
same  objection,  yet  they  are  glad  to  sleep 
under  blankets  that  are  made  by  the  pris- 
oners; and  I  have  been  informed  that 
samples  of  uniforms  made  in  prison,  even 
for  officers'  wear,  are  superior  to  those 
usually  furnished  by  the  State  through  the 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  193 

ordinary  method  of  contract  with  outside 
manufacturers.  This  obstacle  will  pass  away 
in  time.  It  is  not  one  that  will  effectually 
block  the  progress  of  the  State  Use  System. 
It  has  been  effective  in  some  respects,  but 
it  is  believed  that  the  objection  is  purely 
temporary  in  its  working. 

The  above  are  the  main  reasons  which 
have  been  offered  why  the  State  Use  System 
should  not  be  adopted.  As  already  stated, 
at  one  time  they  had  some  weight ;  but  now, 
in  the  Hght  of  practical  experience,  short  as 
it  has  been,  they  have  no  very  great  weight. 
Certainly,  the  advantages  of  the  system  in 
great  measure  offset  the  disadvantages  or 
objections.  There  are  no  permanent  dis- 
advantages to  the  system.  There  are  only 
temporary  obstacles.  The  advantages  are, 
that  the  system  makes  the  least  possible 
impression  upon  the  rates  of  wages  and  the 
prices  of  goods.  To  be  sure,  the  amount  of 
products  of  the  prisons  consumed  by  the 
State  or  any  of  its  institutions  reduces  the 
products  of  outside  establishmentspro  tanto  ; 
but  there  is  no  impression  upon  the  vital 


194  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

elements  of  industry  outside, —  prices  and 
wages, —  and  it  is  conceded  by  all  that  the 
prisoners  must  be  kept  employed  if  any 
reformatory  measures  are  to  be  adopted. 

The  workingmen,  who  found  much  fault 
with  the  Contract  System,  are  almost  uni- 
versally satisfied  with  the  working  of  the 
modern  system,  as  are  also  the  manufact- 
urers, who  do  not  have  to  compete  with  a 
producer  not  obliged  to  consider  cost  in  fix- 
ing prices.  If  this  satisfaction  becomes  gen- 
eral, our  legislatures  will  be  reheved  of  great 
pressure  from  two  avenues  of  approach. 
The  paid  lobbyist  of  the  contractor  will  not 
be  found  in  the  lobbies  of  the  legislature, 
nor  will  the  committees  of  labor  unions  be 
found  antagonizing  them.  The  subject  it- 
self will  also  be  eliminated  from  pubHc  dis- 
cussion in  large  measure.  Politics  will  in- 
terfere now  and  then ;  and  in  some  States 
where  the  State  Use  System  has  been  adopted 
it  will  be  abolished,  and  older  methods,  or 
something  more  injurious,  be  resorted  to  as  a 
makeshift. 

One  of  the  most  powerful  reasons  for  the 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  195 

introduction  of  the  State  Use  System  is  that 
under  it  machinery  is  not  employed  to  any 
great  extent.  The  use  of  machinery,  the 
making  of  the  prison  a  factory  for  the  rapid 
production  of  goods,  was  one  of  the  most 
aggravating  sources  of  annoyance  to  the 
workingman.  The  use  of  hand  machines, 
or  the  production  of  goods  by  hand,  reduces 
this  cause  of  attack  to  its  minimum.  At  the 
same  time,  it  enables  the  prison  authorities 
to  keep  the  prisoners  themselves  almost  con- 
stantly occupied  in  producing  the  goods 
required  of  them.  It  also  has  an  educa- 
tional benefit  that  must  be  fully  considered 
and  appreciated.  If  technical  and  trade 
education  is  to  accompany  or  become  a  part 
of  the  State  Use  System,  hand-labor  methods 
must  be  utilized  to  the  fullest  extent.  Of 
course,  in  the  production  of  some  goods,  or 
in  the  preparation  of  the  raw  material  for 
some  of  them,  machinery  must  be  used,  as, 
for  instance,  in  the  carding  of  wool  for  hand- 
woven  blankets  and  other  goods.  The  set- 
ting up  of  much  powerful  machinery  in  a 
State  prison  will  be  avoided. 


196  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

The  remunerative  character  of  the  State 
Use  System  has  been  well  exemplified  in  the 
experience  of  both  Massachusetts  and  New 
York ;  and,  on  the  whole,  the  effect  upon  the 
treasuries  of  these  States  has  been  as  satisfac- 
tory as,  if  not  more  so  than,  under  the  Con- 
tract System.  The  testimony  of  Mr.  Petti- 
grove,  the  general  superintendent  of  prisons 
of  Massachusetts,  is  to  this  effect.  With 
the  small  working  capital  appropriated  by 
the  legislature,  he  has  been  able  to  establish 
the  industries  called  for  by  the  law,  and  to 
conduct  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  meet  some 
of  the  financial  objections  to  the  State  Use 
System. 

In  addition  to  the  testimony  of  the 
prison  officials,  or  those  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  administration  of  the  law 
relative  to  the  State  Use  System  in  New 
York  and  Massachusetts,  we  have  the  tes- 
timony of  several  legislative  committees 
appointed  to  investigate  different  prison 
systems,  and  to  make  recommendations  to 
their  respective  legislatures.  Attention 
will  be  called  to  but  two  of  these,  and  first 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  197 

to  that  of  the  Pennsylvania  Legislative  Com- 
mittee, acting  under  authority  of  the  law  of 
May  21,  1895,  and  resolutions  of  July  26, 

1897.  This  committee,  of  which  Hon. 
Jacob  Krouse,  of  Philadelphia,  was  chair- 
man, submitted    a  report  adopted  Dec.  20, 

1898.  In  this  report  the  committee  say  — 
and  the  report  is  understood  to  be  unani- 
mous, and  was  made  after  the  members  had 
familiarized  themselves  with  the  systems  of 
convict  labor  prevailing  in  Pennsylvania  and 
other  States  —  that  from  the  information 
obtained  there  was  one  gleam  of  Hght,  and 
that  was  exhibited  by  the  State  of  New 
York.  The  committee  might  have  added, 
had  they  made  the  report  a  few  months 
later,  that  there  was  light  also  from  other 
States.  They  stated  that,  prior  to  the  pres- 
ent law  of  New  York,  that  State  had  been  a 
producer,  manufacturer,  and  seller  of  com- 
modities in  the  open  market,  competing  with 
other  makers  of  the  same  products,  but  that 
by  the  constitutional  provision  the  State  en- 
forced a  mandatory  clause  which  would  have 
thrown  every  one  of  her  convicts  into  a  state 


198  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

of  idleness  except  for  a  suggestion  which 
seemed  to  afford  a  solution  of  the  difficulty. 
That  suggestion,  which  the  committee  state 
was  exactly  in  line  with  one  which  they  had 
made  to  the  legislature  of  their  State  in  a 
report  of  1897,  related  to  the  labor  of  pris- 
oners for  the  benefit  of  charitable,  benevo- 
lent, and  political  institutions  which  the 
State  controlled  or  supported  either  in 
whole  or  in  part.  After  examining  this  sys- 
tem, the  committee  concluded,  after  a  labor- 
ious investigation  from  all  sides  of  the  pres- 
ent system  prevailing  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  its  applicability  to  Pennsylvania, 
that  there  appears  to  be  no  objection  offered 
to  it  from  any  source.  The  committee  had 
before  them  very  many  prison  officials,  and 
gathered  a  large  amount  of  testimony ;  and 
they  found  that  the  unanimity  with  which 
the  State  institutions  of  Pennsylvania  gave 
their  assent  to  the  new  plan  of  operations 
was  remarkable.  They  found  that  the  New 
York  prisons  were  enabled  to  employ  their 
inmates,  and  to  teach  new  trades  to  such  of 
them    as    were   willing   to    learn ;  that   the 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION    •  199 

State-supported  institutions  get  their  wants 
supplied  with  the  best  quahty  of  goods,  at 
prices  satisfactory  to  them ;  that  whatever 
economies  or  earnings  may  result  are  fully 
realized  by  the  State,  and  the  State  alone, 
without  any  injury  to  or  complaint  from  the 
representatives  of  labor  outside,  and,  further, 
with  their  acquiescence.  The  committee, 
therefore,  reported  a  bill  providing  for  the 
production  in  the  several  prisons  of  goods 
required  by  all  State-supported  institutions. 
This  is  the  testimony  of  a  most  industrious 
committee  after  long  and  patient  investi- 
gation. 

New  York  has  also  had  its  legislative 
committee  investigating  this  subject ;  and  its 
chairman,  Hon.  F.  R.  Peterson,  made  a 
report  on  the  subject  of  prison  labor.  The 
resolution  of  the  assembly  appointing  this 
committee  instructed  its  members  particu- 
larly to  inquire  into  the  efPect  of  the  present, 
or  the  State  Use  System  qf  convict  labor 
upon  free  labor.  The  general  conclusions 
of  the  committee  were  as  follows  :  — 

1.  That  the  present  system  has  not  yet 


200  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

succeeded  in  furnishing  employment  for  all 
the  convicts  in  State  prisons. 

2.  That  the  financial  results  are  as  yet 
inadequate  and  unsatisfactory. 

3.  That  the  labor  classes  of  the  State  are 
not  at  the  present  time  suffering  from  the 
competition  of  convict  labor,  as  the  same  is 
carried  on  in  the  prisons  and  penal  institu- 
tions of  the  State. 

4.  That  the  unsatisfactory  results  up  to 
the  present  time  will  be,  in  some  degree, 
obviated  by  greater  experience  and  organiza- 
tion. 

5.  That  the  principle  of  the  greatest 
diversification  of  industries,  coupled  with  a 
complete  supply  for  the  special  market  for 
any  line  of  goods  manufactured,  will  best 
preserve  the  laboring  classes  from  convict 
competition  in  the  future. 

6.  That  the  industries  in  the  peniten- 
tiaries, and  marketing  of  the  products, 
should  be  placed  under  the  same  control 
as  industries  in  the  State  prisons. 

7.  That  the  cell  systems  of  the  three 
State  prisons  should  be  rebuilt  by  convict 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  201 

labor,  and  also  that  a  new  wall  should  be 
constructed  at  Sing  Sing  in  the  same  man- 
ner. 

8.  That  the  policy  of  prohibiting  by 
legislative  enactment  the  employment  of 
convicts  upon  certain  industries  should  be 
discountenanced  ;  and,  generally,  that  if  the 
present  system  be  carried  out  faithfully  and 
intelligently,  and  without  interference,  it  will 
demonstrate  within  a  few  years  the  wisdom 
of  those  who  caused  its  adoption,  and  will 
prove  a  better  system  of  convict  labor  than 
has  ever  before  been  employed  in  this  State. 

With  the  experience  which  has  been  out- 
lined, and  the  testimony  of  the  committees 
referred  to,  there  is,  nevertheless,  some 
grumbling  or  condemnation  of  the  system; 
but  this  condemnation,  it  seems  to  me,  results 
from  a  lack  of  understanding  of  the  system 
and  its  workings.  There  will  be  deficits 
here  and  there,  a  decrease  in  the  demand 
for  goods  sometimes,  and  other  difficulties 
that  will  have  to  be  met  by  legislatures  and 
by  prison  officers.  One  way  of  meeting  the 
objection  relative  to  the  non-employment  of 


202  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

a  portion  of  the  prisoners  relates  to  the  use 
of  them  in  the  reclamation  of  waste  lands  by- 
trenching  or  reforestization,  where  such 
things  can  be  carried  on ;  to  the  building  of 
canals  and  roads,  and  other  public  works; 
and  to  the  utilization  of  prisoners  in  prepar- 
ing material  by  hand  labor  for  the  many 
purposes  of  the  State.  These  supplementary 
provisions  will  probably  result  in  overcoming 
all  the  obstacles  that  are  now  raised  against 
the  State  Use  System,  the  general  adoption 
of  which  is  still  a  matter  which  experience 
alone  can  determine.  Such  experience  must 
be  secured  under  varying  conditions,  and  to 
such  extent  as  will  demonstrate  the  prac- 
ticability of  the  new  methods. 

I  have  purposely  avoided  discussing  at 
length  the  merits  and  demerits  of  other 
systems  than  the  State  Use  System,  and 
have  made  no  attempt  whatever  at  being 
consistent  with  what  I  may  have  stated 
in  the  past  in  any  place  or  in  any  official 
report.  Nevertheless,  it  is  gratifying  to 
find,  on  consulting  articles  and  reports 
which  I  have  written,  that  I  am  not  very 


OF  TUE  LABOR  QUESTION  203 

inconsistent  after  all,  for  in  1879  I  recom- 
mended to  the  Massachusetts  legislature 
the  enactment  of  laws  looking  to  the  pro- 
duction in  the  prisons  of  the  State  of  all 
goods  required  by  them  or  by  any  depart- 
ment of  the  State ;  that  the  greatest  diver- 
sity of  employment  consistent  with  the 
capacity  of  the  prisoners  be  insisted  upon, 
and  that,  whenever  possible,  farms  be  car- 
ried on  by  the  prison  administration  for 
the  supplying  of  institutions ;  and,  again, 
in  1880,  that  the  use  of  all  power  ma- 
chinery be  prohibited  in  prison  shops,  and 
the  convicts  employed  upon  hand  work, 
as  upon  hand-made  boots  and  shoes,  hand- 
woven  goods  for  prison  wear,  and  other 
State  purposes ;  and,  further,  that  all 
idea  of  making  prisons  self-supporting  be 
abandoned,  and  the  convicts  be  taught 
to  turn  their  hands  to  any  trade  requir- 
ing skill  and  training.  Nevertheless,  in 
the  study  of  the  subject  of  prison  labor 
for  more  than  a  score  of  years,  I  have, 
with  all  other  students  of  the  same  sub- 
ject,   been    willing    to    abandon    some   no- 


204  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

tions,  to  modify  some  views,  and  to  accept 
the  results  of  practical  experience. 

Under  the  agitation,  the  idea  has  grown 
that  the  convict  or  the  criminal  should  be 
treated  from  the  physician's  point  of  view, — 
as  a  man  morally  sick,  restricted  in  his  lib- 
erty for  the  sake  of  society,  but,  while 
being  restricted,  given  the  best  possible 
opportunity  for  moral  development  and 
also  for  the  development  of  his  working 
powers,  so  that  when  he  is  freed  he  may 
take  up  self-sustaining  work  as  a  good 
citizen  of  the  community. 

This  state  of  affairs  shows  the  remark- 
able changes  in  prison  discipline  and  the 
development  of  the  prisoner,  and  is  one 
of  the  strongest  answers  to  the  allega- 
tion that  progress  is  apparent  and  not 
real.  Here  is  a  concrete  illustration  of 
the  real  moral  and  economic  progress. 
Now,  instead  of  the  old  degrading  condi- 
tions, in  all  prisons  everywhere  civilized  gov- 
ernments are  conducting  prison  industries 
in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the  least  im- 
pression on   prices   and   wages.     They   are 


OF  THE  LABOB  QUESTION  205 

recognizing  the  force  of  the  suggestion 
that  it  is  the  interest  of  labor  and  capital 
to  reduce  the  number  of  prisoners  as  an 
initiative  to  means  of  greater  reform;  that 
they  must  so  deal  with  criminals  as  to  ef- 
fect a  cure  of  moral  maladies ;  that  prisons 
should  be  conducted  in  the  interest  of  the 
prisoners  and  of  society  primarily,  and 
that  the  interest  of  the  treasury  should 
be  only  incidental  to  the  best  effect  upon 
the  prisoners  themselves  and  upon  the 
community. 

With  these  comments,  I  may  be  indulged 
in  stating  a  few  conclusions,  although  the 
facts  which  lead  to  all  of  them  have  not 
been  discussed  in  this  paper.  These  con- 
clusions are :  — 

1.  That  it  is  wisest  to  conduct  prison  in- 
dustries in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the  least 
impression  on  prices  and  the  rates  of  wages. 

2.  That  for  incorrigibles  and  recidivists 
that  form  of  labor  should  be  adopted  which 
requires  the  largest  expenditure  of  muscle  in 
proportion  to  the  cost  of  raw  materials  and 
the  least  outlay  of  capital. 


206  SOME  ETHICAL  PHASES 

3.  That  there  is  not  so  much  reformable 
material  in  prisons  as  philanthropists  and 
others  would  have  us  believe. 

4.  That  very  many  persons  now  sent  to 
prison  by  the  courts  should  be  sent  to  in- 
sane asylums,  or  institutions  for  the  treat- 
ment of  the  feeble-minded. 

5.  That  it  is  the  interest  of  labor  and  cap- 
ital to  reduce  the  number  of  prisoners  rather 
than  constantly  to  attack  the  systems  of 
prison  labor. 

6.  That  in  the  conduct  of  prisons  and  the 
employment  of  prisoners  the  physician's 
point  of  view  should  be  followed  ;  that  is, 
the  cure  of  moral  maladies  in  State  prisons, 
as  well  as  the  cure  of  mental  and  physical 
maladies  in  other  institutions,  should  be  the 
basis  of  management. 

7.  That  in  the  employment  of  convicts 
the  effect  upon  the  treasury  should  be  inci- 
dental to  the  best  effect  upon  the  prisoners 
themselves  and  upon  the  community  at 
large. 

8.  That  it  is  wise  to  let  the  system  now 
on  trial  in  the  States  that  have  provided  for 


OF  THE  LABOR  QUESTION  207 

it  —  the  State  Use  System  —  alone  until  it 
can  be  fully  tried,  and  determined  whether 
it  involves  the  very  best  elements  of  reforma- 
tion, remimeration,  and  the  constant  and 
healthy  employment  of  the  convicts. 

9.  That  the  State  should  always  conduct 
its  prisons  and  employ  its  prisoners  in  such 
a  way  that  the  individual  shall  not  be  de- 
graded. 


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